Dan G

If you only read Slashdot, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Vista is some defective-by-design DRM infested white elephant that will either drive you insane or into the waiting arms of OSX. Only, that's not Vista is. At all.

Here's a nice review of more than a year and half of using Vista betas and now the final release. It's not terribly sensationalist but is probably somewhat closer to the truth than the mad ravings on some other sites.

A few bottom lines about Vista:
*Vista looks a lot like XP with a few improvements to the user interface. Bear in mind that Microsoft spend many millions on interface research (witness the breakthrough that is Office 2007) - despite what many Mac-fans say, the Vista interface is very good.
*Aero off-loads drawing the screen from the CPU to the GPU, so performance actually improves.
*It is secure. It's been out in final for more than a month and beta for more than a year, and you can bet *every* malware author on the globe has been trying to break it. They've failed.
*Yes it has DRM, no it does not cripple the system. No user will ever notice it if they stay within the bounds of the law (every heard an iPod/iTunes user complain about DRM?).
*All that said, it's probably not worth upgrading. XP SP2 is rock-solid and secure itself. Wait until you buy a new computer to get Vista.