I use Vista on my desktop and I don't mind it although it does need a decent amount of ram to work properly.
Now I am using Vista x86 SP1 (Ultimate Edition). The performance is good. But if I think as a regular average user I don't think there is a lot of development in Vista without looks. I like the installation process of Vista. Even a five year kid can install Vista. The installation process is very easy. I can rate the vista look 8/10.
Vista is very good on new computers. Sure it's bad for old PC (most owners of which are replied there, lol). I had 3 years old PC and run XP, didn't even try Vista cause I know it would be slow if even run. But running it on Core 2 Duo e8200, 4 gig of ram, and fast hdd with 32 mb cache .... it's just paradise.
Though I have a 2GB RAM and core 2 duo processor.. my system seems to be very slow with Vista. I love to use XP.. as it is really damn good and fast....
For those who consider themselves intelligent, they would know that Vista is a Dump, Dump of ideas GONE Horribly Wrong !! A 21st Century Frankenstein ! XP on the other hand is Simple, Stable, Secure & Simply Superb !
I use vista at home and XP at work. To be honest they are both pretty bad operatiing systems. XP has a speed advantage over Vista but on a decent computer its not really noticable. However the big thing for Vista is the searching is finally fixed and finds files in seconds rather than hours for XP. I must say that I know prefer Vista over XP. But it did take a while.
But I did have xp and now vista. Vista is faster in my case. Some good sides I've already discovered like for example very rare application crashes it faster kill it or even restart again. I haven't seen anything like that in XP. And that is just one feature, also lot of people have very good opinion about bitlocker. "Simple, Stable, Secure & Simply Superb" Vista is all the same now. Just not only simply but fancy, as well as more secure. By the way still don't know how XP handles 4 core processors, are they recognised and used ok ? Vista SP2 will be next year. Have seen some betas in torrents. XP is dying slowly but definitely.
I love Vista. The majority of Vista haters hate it, but haven't tried it, because the other guy does. Sorta like high school, where everyone hates one person, because one person hates them.
I have 3 computers running XP and 3 running Vista. I couldn't give a shit either way, they're just machines that do my bidding, if not I will destroy them and they know it - don't let them intimidate you!
I'll say what I say in all these vista bashing threads Get a real machine and it runs like a champ. I barely spent 800$ and got a whole new pc a year ago, and it's lovely.