I personally LOVE the NXE. Not only can you visibly see your online friends, you can see the avatars of the people that they are chatting with. With the quick push of a button, you can join their party and chat with them.

Netflix is ok, I really wish their was a bigger library. But it's free with my regular subscription so I'm not complaining.

The avatars are pretty cool. I think they're nicely detailed. I actually made one that fit my style almost perfectly.

Installing games is great, no jet engine sound while I'm deep into a game.

The one pet peeve I had with the old dashboard was when you were in a private chat and someone sent you a voice message, you had to leave the chat, listen to the message, then go back into the menu and rejoin the chat. This no longer happens with the new dashboard. Another old pet peeve was that when you hit the guide button when a friend was signing on, you'd go into their profile. Very annoying.

I dont get why people are complaining about this update. It's a more streamlined experience with additional options. If you don't like it, don't use it.

 My only complaint is that the last line is an impossible scenario. This is a mandatory update. If you know of some way to not use it please tell me. I would love the new features without the new interface. Hell I would settle for the old features and old interface. As it stands you either cut out all Xbox Live features, or you lose the interface. Not using it simply is not an option.

I guess what I meant to say was don't use xbox live if you really don't like it that much. It's a luxury item, not a necessity. You still have the system blades, just modified a bit.

Why hasn't my avatar been added to my gamercard (in my sig) yet?

It appears that whatever backend service is providing these avatar images is getting bogged down.  Probably be cleared up in a couple of days.

I tried to access the avatars site via pc and the servers are down due to too much traffic..

 Right well when you come up with a real solution let me know. Giving up every online feature of a console that has built its reputation around online features is the absolute worst idea I have ever heard to fix any problem. Thats like cutting off your hand to get rid of a splinter. Furthermore, consoles themselves are luxury items. Any extra features are not luxuries but actual features of a luxury item. I have payed for access to Xbox Live. It was part of the selling of the system to me (well Ikaruga and Puzzle Fighter were and I have yet to pick up the latter). Cutting features from a system I payed for so they can ruin the interface is not my idea of a good update either. The systems blades have been gutted and work around the super fugly new system so it is not even close to a solution either.

 I really just wish they would throw something similar to the old GUI onto the new system. I understand why they needed to update everything, and why they would redesign the interface. Hell it even makes a bit of sense why they would not bother updating the old interface since it would likely require rebuilding it from scratch based on what Jaggedsac is saying (massive update to the backend). I am just going to whine until they put the work into making the old system work with the new one because it is my given right as a consumer to do so. Unrealistic expectations are allowed as long as I pretend it wouldn't take as much work as I know it would.

There are far more options available in the new guide menu; you pretty much have access to everything you need just by pressing the guide button and shuffling through the mini-blades.

I did a full install for Gears 2 and while I can't say there's a night and day difference between load times (Gears didn't have load time problems to begin with), it does cut off the DVD buzzsaw noise during game play.

Full installs are arguably the best reason to have a 120GB drive currently.

It looks clean. A bit more complicated to navigate through than blades, but more options are also available. I'm probably in the minority, but the old dashboard interface was a real eyesore that did not optimize desktop space at all with all the visible side tabs.

It's an improvement all around, even if it does mean relearning where everything is located.

And XBL is currently lagging due to traffic.

oh btw not ALL games will benefit from the install. Halo 3 runs better from the DVD disc.

i installed Mass Effect and its run far better from the HDD the textures load fast also the load time reduced.