Firewalls - are they really needed?

Well I'm not correcting anybody who isn't here to explain their own post:

But the way I read it it is saying it doesn't exist in the vista FW right?

 

ffreedom01 has answered the question.

Many of the "main" FW have vista versions now so the ease of use would depend on the design of those.

 

No firewall is perfect. That means that no matter what firewall you use you cannot be protected 100%. But if the firewall can protect you in, let's say 80% of the cases, it is way better than 0%. Same thing can be said about outbound protection. Sure, there is malware that can bypass personal firewalls. But a good part of malware uses simple ways to call home that can be prevented with the most basic firewall there is.
In conclusion, it would be stupid not to protect yourself against some of the threats, just because there is no product that can protect you against all threats.