GiB -> GB and GB -> GiB isn't a big deal. I mean, if you ask anyone if they care, they more than likely won't know. But from a technical standpoint, it might be. But, from ANOTHER technical standpoint, a main goal of modern computing is to make things as simple as possible for the user. And if they don't know the difference between GiB and GB, then mission accomplished. It's seamless enough.
My point is this: If it's not (too) noticeable for most end-users, it shouldn't be worried about. It's bad enough there's people out there still trying to check their email and edit images with MS Paint. [THINK WEBTV/MSNTV.] Seriously, there's no need to "TURN ON THA FUCKIN' REVOLUTION MACHINE, WE GOT SOME USERS AND BYTES TO SAVE FROM THE OPPRESSED WORLD."
Yeah, it
is pretty stupid
Macroshaft isn't following the newer conventions and uniformity, but the storage capacity is still the same, it just looks different to the user. Seeing as how Vista was just released (and to the best of my knowledge hasn't changed this since XP), it may be a matter of years until they finally incorporate it into the OS. (I doubt they'd put it into a Service Pack... Imagine the users calling them and saying, "WHAT THE HELL WHY ARE ALL OF MY FILES BIGGER?!"--Not to mention possible software incompatibilities. (which means even more incompatibility for Vista))
Since it seems to be only MS that doesn't want to "get with the program" (no pun intended), there should be no real cause for concern. Perhaps they just kept binary for the sake of matching previous windows'. It's not like this hasn't come up to the programmers, everyone there knows about it, and choose to do it. They have a reason for it.
Perhaps there will be a future fix for it, perhaps there won't. Oh well. There's plenty of better shit to bitch at microsoft for, let's focus on those. This issue just isn't important enough for major concern IMO, and I've heard enough.