We use Vista at my school, and I hate it. Vista can be very accurately summed up in one line:
It looks pretty, but it does f***-all.
It's slow, easy to crash, not overly reliable, there are compatibility problems (for example the D.T department's laser cutter only works on XP, there's a whole new different format of Word document which no other programme seems to be able to open - not even all Microsoft Word versions can open it), it's annoying, it's changed tried-and-tested methods which existed up to XP (in terms of the entire fricking menu system which has been sent into a state of retardation), and computers which worked excellently on XP now don't run too well at all (and the laptops basically don't run).
In other words, I hate Vista, almost everyone else at my school hates Vista, and I'd strongly recommend not getting it, or getting a Mac (which can run Microsoft anyway).
<S>
Yossarian