Vista is much better for me than XP. In fact I recently tried using XP again on another hard drive (I needed to ensure software I wrote was still compatible with XP) and XP is worse than Vista - even with all my drivers up to date and a minimal amount of software.
XP takes longer than Vista to start up for one.
XP has BSOD'd more in this past month than Vista has in the year and a half I've had it (I think I've had Vista about that long anyways).
I constantly need to restart XP due to unresponsiveness in XP.
For Vista the only problems I've had are these:
The display driver crashed twice 3 or 4 months ago - but after a simple upgrade it worked fine.
Vista BSOD'd once due to a faulty driver.
Aero is slower than Vista Basic & Windows Classic theme (Big surprise, eh?).
When I first got Vista I was taken a little off guard with the layout but I realized the layout was better for newcomers and idiots who use computers, which is the larger majority of people who use computers. So the new design makes sense, especially considering someone who actually knows how to use a computer can figure out the new layout quickly and learn to use it just as efficiently as XPs. If you're STILL having trouble with the layout then you're an idiot.
I don't have SP1, btw, I'm still using the first version of Vista (plus some upgrades) and it works great. I won't make any judgments towards SP1 as I haven't tried it. And if you're making judgments towards SP1 and haven't used it everyday for at least a month then you're words are obviously aimed at something old. It's like saying X sucks without regarding the Y upgrade.
Cheers,
-naota
I'm not a dictator to those that do stuff for me by will. Only those who don't.