The computer that I’m working on has Windows Vista. I was totally ticked off that I was going to have to use Vista, but as the months have gone by I really like Vista, in fact I think that it’s better than XP. I think that it’s because I have a very logical brain and I like things to be very ordered and straight forward. Vista is really easy to use once you realize that everything is laid out in a logical way. (Okay I used the word logical several times, but I’m too lazy to use the dictionary to find a synonym.) Anyway I just wanted to put my two cents worth into the conversation about Vista vs. XP now that XP is no longer going to be sold on the PC’s.
Ok, so here’s the computer geek perspective:
I suspect for users who are not high-power users, Vista is just fine. However, tech articles state that performance tests show it to still be slower, the base OS uses a lot more memory, and a lot more technical stuff (from what I’ve read – I don’t plan to buy or install it
is kept hidden from the user – this last bit probably makes it more user-friendly (which is a plus for most people!), but I’m always irritated when the OS decides it can go off and do things and I get no say about how or when they happen 
When I run Windows, I’m usually running graphics- and memory-hogging apps, so I get really annoyed when the OS sucks down a lot of memory and takes up a lot of space it doesn’t need for no reason. (Also, there’s a whole lot of software that runs on XP but not Vista yet, so that’s annoying all by itself)
That said, in the interest of full disclosure, I use Windows reluctantly to begin with – I’m not a Linux prophet like my husband, but all of my machines run Linux and two dual-boot Windows XP. Given all of the security issues XP had all the time for years (it’s only a half-decent OS now that SP3 is out) and Microsoft’s track record for releasing half-baked OSs with lots of security vulnerabilities (some of them very bad) and then just continuously patching them for several years, only to stop supporting the OS about the time they’ve gotten it right, I’ll withhold judgement for a while and see what really happens
we hate vista. it’s slower, automatically clicks on random things and we had to relearn where all the options are on, say, MS Word.
You like Vista? …really? …but I remember you as the Macintosh Queen of St. Olaf, off like a speeding bullet to help your friends with their freaked-out floppies.
Okay, so Vista is easy-to-use (as long as you learn where everything got moved) and it’s purty on the eyes…but so is a Mac.
My next computer will probably be an iMac, which will run WinXP when I want it to (which probably won’t be that much). If I do break down and get a PC, then my Vista license will be downgraded to XP.