Is Vista a dog?

Well, I guess I am just

Well, I guess I am just different. I had used an XP system for four years but my new Dell with Vista Home Premium has been working wonderfully. It boots in about 1.5 minutes and shuts down faster than XP. I love the new interfaces and file handling. I absolutely love the 3-D windows feature. I've yet to find a single flaw in the system. I still have the XP machine but I fear it will just gather dust. I love my new machine and Vista. I think all of this bellyaching is a lot of hogwash, personally. My $0.03.

It seems these discussions

It seems these discussions are futile. Vista is such an obvious disaster. It's ME all over again.
Whenever I hear any IT "expert" praising Vista, I recoil in absolute horror! Do we speak the same language? Perhaps it is some "other" Vista they are referring to? Is there an evil parallel universe bumping into ours that has a good vista? it's the only conclusion i can come to without losing faith totally in my fellow professionals and my profession in general.
so to those in the other universe.. hooray for vista! (wow that sounds weird)

There's another possible

There's another possible factor accounting for Vista's slowness that no one else has mentioned: The increased use of .Net-based programs.

Despite claims to the contrary, .Net programs are SLOW, and I'm speculating this is another factor (in addition to Vista's poor design.)

.Net programs do boxing/unboxing, JITing, garbage collection, and memory tests (like array bounds checking), none of which is done by normal programs. The graphics are slower too in .Net.

While the .Net programming environment isn't crap, like MFC/OLE, its execution/implementation is flawed and inefficient, resulting in sluggish applications.

If XP wasn't available and I had to choose between Vista and Mac OS, I'd make the switch to Mac OS.

My old laptop (running XP)

My old laptop (running XP) is showing signs of age and I had assumed I'd be buying a new one within 6 mos or so anyway- but now I'm in a panic because I really don't want Vista. I wouldn't mind a Mac at all but am concerned about compatibility issues in a field (legal/IP) that is traditionally very PC- based. So databases, web sites etc are certainly not optimized for Macs, if they work at all (for example the TIFF viewer on the Patent OFfice site doesn't work with Safari) Nobody in my small company uses a Mac, and I have no idea if I will be able to access the corporate network easily or not, or use the company's Outlook mail system. Stuff like that- I telecommute and so I really rely on my laptop- and don't have much tech support access.
I really resent being put in this position- what was Microsoft thinking by releasing an OS that is a step back? I'm debating whether to try to order a laptop with XP on it.
THanks for listening to me vent (SORRY!) and any suggestions would be most welcome.

What the heck, I'll defend

What the heck, I'll defend Vista.

I'm running Ultimate on a new PC I built myself (Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM, EVGA 8600 GTS video card), and although I've run into a couple of problems here and there (the majority of which I've been able to find solutions for), my experience has been mostly positive up until this point.

Startup and shutdown times are within normal range. The user interface is beautiful and responsive. I can even do some fairly intense gaming while I have my malware-detection software doing its chores in the background, and my system barely produces a hiccup.

I don't know -- maybe I'm just lucky or I simply happen to know what I'm doing. I still stand firm in my belief that Wintel is not necessarily a bad choice, but hey, if you prefer the Mac or Linux, then by all means, avoid Microsoft.

O.K. I am primarily a Mac

O.K. I am primarily a Mac user, but I am also a computer geek and I bought a Gateway Convertible (Tablet) PC with Vista Home Premium. I much prefer it over the XP computers I use at my shop. Yes it is slow to boot, 5-7 minutes to settle down after loading seemingly endless "process modules" but once loaded. I actually almost like it. The Handwriting recognition is first-class, and the voice recognition is fair. If Apple would make a small tablet computer running OS X, I would get rid of the Vista machine. But I doubt Apple will. So for the HR, I will continue to put up with Windows less than stellar performance.

What I find hard to believe

What I find hard to believe is that not one person has defended Vista yet. No one has expressed a good experience with the new OS. I think that just proves the point.
I think it very well put when someone posted that although MS has "shipped" 40M copies, how many did the consumers really want versus how many were forced onto them because they didn't know they could still choose XP.
This isn't innovation, it is forced migration for the sake of sales. This is what capitalism is based on and what makes our economy run. Just look around and car manufactures, major retailers like wmart, and the like. Sell sub-par items, charge tons to fix what should have been right the first time, and make sure the product lifespan is short so that you have to buy another sub-par upgraded model to replace your current broken sub-par model.
On another thought though, how many people griped about XP when it first came out. It was a pig and had bad reviews, but once it was adopted and software vendors started programming with it in mind, the experience got better.
I hope we can expect that to happen with Vista, although I'm not holding my breath.

Performance on a system with

Performance on a system with 2GB ram and a 7200rpm drive is good. Don't kill your credibility with remarks to the contrary.

The real issues are bad for Microsoft. Vista is difficult to use for business, power users can't run productivity software like engineering programs or financial software without taking 6-7 hours resolving vista issues.

Hours spent locating drivers and buying 3rd party upgrades are hours wasted.

Vista is not a productive solution. That doesn't begin to count the IT costs to administer a program without any tools.

I have been using beta

I have been using beta through commercial versions of Vista for about 8 months at work. I have tried to be patient and get use to the new operating system. The added security may be good from a corporate standpoint, but I cannot find anything that Vista does that is worth the aggravation. The reduction in speed of everything is also very noticeable. Microsoft can boast of the number of copies sold, but how many home PC buyers really wanted it? If you want a new PC with Windows XP, order them online from the likes of Dell...

I have a brand new top DELL

I have a brand new top DELL Optiplex - fastest harddrive and highest CPU.

Vista takes six minutes to boot and over a minute to shut-down.

Indexing is turned off, I even turned off restore points - UAC isn't even on. It takes a full six minutes just to get to the LOGON screen.

MAC's take 30-40 seconds to boot .... those commercials are right. MACs are just plain more productive and less aggravating.

It's not Bill's fault - he doesn't work there ... it's the college kids they are hiring to write this junk in Redmond!