Shows that a large amount of the anti-Vista crowd has never even used Vista:

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Microsoft last week traveled to San Francisco, rounding up Windows XP users who had negative impressions of Vista. The subjects were put on video, asked about their Vista impressions, and then shown a "new" operating system, code-named Mojave. More than 90 percent gave positive feedback on what they saw. Then they were told that "Mojave" was actually Windows Vista.
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http://news.cnet.com/8301-1386.....7-1_3-0-20

lmao, mr geek, that's hallarious. i figured 99% of vista bashers have never even logged onto a vista setup and used it. when i see an xp computer i think how out dated it looks, feels and operates. also, like jack, i'm figuring out ubuntu and liking it more as i go.

The problem is that people don't like to change. Why do most people always buy the same make of cars, the same make of washing machines, eat the same foods all the time - because that's what they know. To venture into a new thing means taking risks and making your brain work.
Now with that said, there are some genuine issues with those that cannot run their old XP programs on Vista - and they blame Vista for it rather than the owner of those programs who are the real culprits because they did not provide a Vista version. Dragging all the legacy around is not a good thing for an operating system - Vista has already too much of that and then it is accused of being bloated. Can't have your cake and eat it too.
If the alternatives (e.g. Linux, Mac) were that great, they would have a bigger marketshare and more support. And XP is just your grandfathers Vista. Look at the postings in the Forum - It has it's problems too - and that after all those years.

@whs

Agreed, there are genuine problems with both Vista and XP... I think most of the anti-Vista hype, especially online, is mostly just the idiots following the popular crowd, trying to be accepted. I distinctly remember all of the anti-XP people that swore they would stick with Win2000 forever... now they are the anti-Vista, pro-XP people.

Actually, my grandfather has a Mac. Last time he came over, he was cursing the fact that you can't change the size of the tiny system fonts, and you have to change each application's content pane font sizes separately (seriously). He's thinking about going back to Windows now.

"mostly just the idiots following the popular crowd"

now that got my attention. i remember one time i was chatting with a couple of friends and i mentioned that i bought a laptop running vista, one of my non-techy friends immediately told me that vista is bad and i should immediately switch to XP. when i asked her how and why she found out that "vista is bad," she just said that she heard it somewhere. it's kind of funny coz whenever she needs tech advice and help, i'm the one she runs to. (although i wouldn't call her an idiot, hehe)

personally, i haven't (or don't have the time to) noticed the differences in performance with vista and xp, but what i find most useful is the quick search box in windows explorer. i agree with whs about people not wanting to change because they have to make their brains work, some people are just too lazy to try new things or to experiment before they say something is bad. i guess that's one of the things that separate geeks from normal people, experimenting with their computer (and probably messing up the first time) and not being afraid to do it again.