I have heard the comment that XP early adopters had early problems, just the same as Vista.

This is simply not true. Most XP adopters were coming from Win9x and as such any of the early problems with XP were small potatoes compared with even the first release of XP.

The main problem with Vista is that the most important feature, the fancy new file system, didn't get in, and even after cutting out such a nice feature, the new OS has a whole slew of really irritating new features, bugs and teething problems. 

Microsoft should have waited six more months to release Vista. After waiting four extra years, what is another six months.

There is a lot of really kewl new capability in Vista, but unfortunately it has to reach at least 30% of the installed base before you see very many software developers taking advantage of these features.

There will probably be a Vista II release sometime next year and it will fix a lot of problems. i wonder if we will EVER get that kewl file system. With 1 terabyte hard disks, we sure need a easier to use file system.

"If we did not get these new Op systems look where we would be at now"

Personally, i'd love to see the comeback of a stable low memory operating system, using standard shared libraries (not DLL hell) on modern hardware.

The one i'm thinking of was called Workbench, and ran on the Amiga :-p

The remake is a work in progress called AROS (http://www.aros.org)

Its not that vista is bad, its that the performace is bad. I'm not sure exactly what I'm getting with vista. XP = 2GB, vista = 15GB???? Some one please tell me what I'm getting. DRM infection is not going to make me buy, it does nothing different, add on no new features. Its all glitz and glamor, 13GB of glitz and glamor, and a little bit of DRM, and WGA to piss you off a little. So I"ll wait until what ever comes after vista, or perhaps microsoft should release a performance version of vista DRM'less than you'd see a crap load of sales.

Vista's not so bad. People make a big deal about it and complain bitterly about it, ignoring the fact that this is how just about everything works. What was buggy and expensive last year is functional and cheap this year. Thus is the way of things.

Nice that some people are writing in to say such things. It gets really, really old to always have The Inq going on and on and on about how Vista is "DRM-infected" and "dog-slow" and "crippled" and "bloatware" and "spyware" and has an "abusive product activation" and such.

Get over yourselves. The DRM only kicks in if you're using a protected HD-DVD or Blu-ray disc, just like stand-alone players. It's only slow if you run it with 512 MB of RAM or less, and let's be honest, these days Firefox can eat more than that, and anybody would be mad to make a system with less than 1-1.5 gigs at current prices. If people are worried about Vista spying on them and using personal information they should watch out for Google--their entire source of revenue is based off of digging through your information to try and sell you stuff that they think best matches your interests. And abusive product activation? That's just nonsense--the average user gets this stuff pre-installed and never sees a word about activation, and the technically inclined user spends all of a minute going through that once when they do a clean install.

How about you do some fair tests yourselves and report on that, rather than just echoing the negative takes on why Vista isn't perfect in every way?

I made the plunge , I bought Vista. And when loading the Op system I was thinking ,wow should I have done this after all that I have read?

Well I can say this, it has worked with everything I have, Hardware the sort, only a few older games had an issue. 

After a month of using Vista I set back and thought about it, I like it, it is easier to use and other than some of the games not working as fast as they should it is great to use. 

I can see where some with older computers will and have had issues and are angry about Vista but I do not see any change from XP to Vista that I did not have when I changed to XP Pro when it came out. 

Games did not run right on XP when it came out , they where slow and crashed a lot , we had to jump through hoops to get some of the best ones to run, But we did it.

And as time went on fixes where given to us and wow we love XP. The same is going on now. 

I have to wonder if most of the people complaining about Vista are the younger users , the ones that have not been around long enough to remember what it was like when XP came out.

I do know also that on my Linux machines that I take care of for some company's have issues like was told of above about a train ticket. 

Have to reboot for no known reason, or crash, Yes even linux machines crash. So when I see so much in the news about Vista it kinda makes me think about the user who is using it. Or when a statement is made that linux is better or XP is better by a user just how much computer time do they have?

I know that after 30 years of working on Computer Systems ,I have seen the same thing over and over . (The last one was and is better}. That is up to when they get all the Op system ironed out. 

Write this down , and the next Op system that comes out read about it and just see what you read. The same that we are reading now!

Reading this about how bad Vista is makes me wonder , just like Mac's do not get viruses , linux does not get Viruses. 
Yes they do. But that does not keep them from being touted as , Do not worry they do not get Viruses as no one writes them. 
If we did not get these new Op systems look where we would be at now, stopped dead in our tracks . We have to learn to stand the pain of going forward and learn how to deal with the issues till we get it fixed to the way we like it.

A quick search of the eden project visitor count [http://www.cornwall-calling.co.uk/eden-project-cornwall.htm] shows about 1.2-1.3 Million visitors alone.

yet the bristol-bath bike path (a single sustrans project) gets 2M visits/year, though that presumably includes a lot of repeat customers.

In terms of #of visits, it is clear sustrans projects outdo the eden project. That doesnt mean they dont have good communications (all those regional cylists mailing lists), but they also have more popularity than you'd think. Which is why people are on the mailing lists.

I too remember when XP was new and it ran like a dog compared to Win98, but at least XP didn't force dodgy DRM restrictions and annoying activation schemes on you. And at least most Win2K drivers worked on it.

While Vista's performance and driver support may improve over time it's clear the DRM and activation are here to stay. So what's my motivation to upgrade? 

As a gamer DX10 might have been it, but considering yesterday's article which proved the early DX10 shots of Flight Simulator X were bullshit 

I currently have no reason to abandon the faster and better XP. In the long run I think Vista could end up the Playstation 3 of Microsoft.