Chris Pirillo recently wrote an interesting writeup of feedback on Vista Beta 2. In what could be described as a mashup of bug report and user-experience feedback, he captures the essence of what a super-users and influentials see when they use Beta 2 (note: most users of any beta 2 fall into one of these categories by definition).  While I'm sure certain folks would have preferred a different, more private approach (PR <cough>), this type of feedback is fantastic whether I agree with it all or not. It's structured.  It's digestable.  It comes from a credible source. Bugs can be filed against it. We need more of it.

Microsoft has MANY ways of collecting feedback and usability reports.  During the course of Vista, entire teams dedicated to this practice have been doing an excellent job of rolling the feedback up to management as well as the rest of the Vista org for shared learnings.  It's refreshing to see.  Vista is not perfect, but the team is actively taking notice of feedback and more importantly taking action.

Yes Chris, I see you as a passionate user.  Thank you for taking the time and sharing.