Ultimate Extra! Ultimate Extra! Read all about... what?

Remember when Vista was young? One of the reasons Microsoft gave for shelling out the heavy poundage on Vista Ultimate was that it would come with constantly updated, gloriously unique extras. These Ultimate Extras would include "Cutting-edge programs", "Innovative services... to help you tailor your computing experience to your digital lifestyle.... make your experience more powerful, productive and personal", and "Unique publications" which would be "premium content that focuses on your digital lifestyle".

As the Vista advertising promised: wow!

There have been just a couple of wee problems with this super-exciting proposal: almost no details of these cutting-edge, innovative and unique offerings have been provided... and, slim as those details have been - language packs! Windows DreamScene! -- they still outweigh the actual goods, as delivered.

Which appear to be zero.

You can read more on this, on antipodean blogger Long Zheng's caustic post, where he goes into far more detail than Redmond has managed.

And if you're about to ask Microsoft what actually happened, pause a second and ask yourself - should I also ask what happened to Windows Sideshow?

(Extra gnus via Techmeme and the good offices of his serene highness the Codepope)