I miss being excited about VR tech. I used to run a CRT/Shutter glasses setup back in the day for racing games. Now that big tech has moved in, my interest in trying it again, has waned.
Modern hardware is even more awesome, but it seems like almost every product that interests me is tarnished by manufacturers hell-bent on recurring revenue streams, or gathering as much of my personal information as possible to increase their profits.
I make a living as a software developer, but I'm coming to hate so much about modern technology. It reminds me of a line from the movie Sneakers [0], where some anonymous corporate programmer says to another, "Remember when computers used to be fun?" (Or something like that. I saw the movie 25 years ago.)
I'm actually thinking to get one for my family this Christmas. (I'm in the queue for ordering.)
Oculus' devices seem generally a bit lighter and more comfortable, and Valve/HTC's devices tend to be a bit heavier, but with more focus on high-end performance.
This varies across their product lines of course, but I think it's fair to say both are strong contenders for good consumer VR products, albeit with different primary focuses.
The disadvantage is that maintaining a gaming PC seems daunting for some folks. Also, you have to figure out how to get cables from your PC to an empty space that is wired for VR. That can be a logistics problem if your gaming PC isn't near your living space.
Before you could just buy some hardware and actually own it and use it directly however you like, nowadays you very often need some vendor website or external service just to get it running. Very annoying and complicated.