I've had vista on my laptop but it didn't last long. Firstly i tested it with vmware workstation and it went ok but after a proper install as the host it crashed several times, was slow and plenty of things didn't work including my network wifi card. To add to this the graphical design with transparency and clocks/gadgets just seemed to be a linux wanabe, trying to be great but still getting pissed on by linux. Many Linux distros out of the box are very bare bones but with tweaks you can make it look amazing with either gnome, kde, fluxbox or beryl. Things that windows can never achieve.

Even people who post up their fancy desktops on windows have to use something like windowblinds and its crap. Linux you can do what you want and have more combinations. Most people would be best to get themselves a book or 2 like a linux bible download an iso image and use for a few months until they are comfortable with it like they are windows, just have windows on a spare pc or use vmware for those odd things you can't find a linux replacement for, which isn't a lot. Then you can load up windos xp/vista as a guest on the linux machine just like you would open up firefox or photoshop, save it and shutdown and return to your desktop, you can even use NAT and share the net connection so you can be using internet explorer on windows but on linux.

Windows xp/vista was/is hundreds of pounds then even more for office yet linux comes free with open office on it. Sounds silly to me not just for people at home but for schools and basic buinesses too. It comes with firefox and there not shitty WMP or IE loitering around. Firefox, VLC, Gaim and Skype and most people are all set.

I do agree though with the point made about XP having similar drama with things not working etc. It will get better for vista but just not good enough. You will always have security issues taking months to be patched and it will always crash from time to time.