When combined with WHQL certification, it benefits the end user by ensuring that the drivers meets a set of standards and won't crash a system due to poorly written code. It is designed to ensure you know where you are getting a driver from and that it is not some hacked driver. Yes, those programs might very well be decent and I use a couple of the, but they need to be signed and tested. This is not just to line Microsoft's pockets but to ensure the end users computer experience is a good one.
Until you download some certified nVidia drivers which try to fry your GPU. Or the stars line up in such a way you start to get strange behaviour with certain software, that despite your initial investigations turns out to be caused by a a random bug in a certified driver. The idea behind WHQL is sound, but the results are another thing, you can't get everything right with a open standard. Heck, not even with a closed one (see Apple products and current console systems).
I would really like to see a revamped notification system, with more flexibility to format the notifications (pictures, animation...), and more options for interaction. See Growl, the new notification system for Linux pioneered by Canonical, or systems used in 3rd party apps like PopUp+ in Miranda. Something better for program management than Aero Flip wouldn't hurt either. Finally, full and transparent program virtualization, so games can be run in future Windows OS without jumping through a thousand hoops.
Also, FFS, make Notepad detect other line endings than CR+LF.
- carpe noctem
I could probably burn three 4.7 GiB DVDs in that same amount of time.
