Snoopy: Well, a lot of the problems have now been sorted. (apart from the security hole they found last week, that is in Vista AND Windows 7, which may now be sorted).
As Microsoft admit thereselves, it should never have been released when it was.
The main issues were a lack of proper drivers for it & application compatibility issues.
I even got this email link the other day from PC-Pro - Microsoft admits Vista was less than good.
Of course many of the issues have now beed resolved, which is ironic as they are just releasing Windows 7.
I am a great believer in that is something is not broke, do not try and fix it.
XP has been by far there most stable operating system, although now like i say i am going to give Ubuntu a try on one of my spare PCs. I used Vista when i was working, and never had any real problems, and most of the PCs & Laptops i repair now all seem to be Vista installed ones.
My only advice is if you buy a new PC / Laptop with Vista on, make sure you have decent Avti-Virus and Spyware product (AVG & Spybot S & D are fine, but there are others), and make sure you download there latest service pack (i think it is SP2)