Ok, so I have been using Windows Vista for about 1 month now and am feeling comfortable enough with it to state my thoughts on it.
(BTW, my official install happened right before my post on Corporations)
(Oh yeah, BTW, I'm trying out Live Writer with this post... I hope it works better than my last blog editor... [it did... thanks Peek!]).
Short Version
So the short version of my thoughts on Vista is that I like it. It's more secure and it comes with .NET 2.0/3.0... and... uhh... it's pretty and has built-in search...
Long Version
So the long version is this... My favorite feature of Vista is the new security. I really dig it despite being told by Jon Goodyear (my former boss and the Angry Coder) that I would probably hate it.
I know others have expressed disliking it... Here's why I like it. I like that I am not running as an admin on my box, and so I can't accidently install anything. I get prompted to go into admin mode. This is much like the way the Unix-based OSes I have used work (including Mac OS X... depite what the stupid Mac commercial that makes fun of Vista's security does). The big difference is that Unix-based OSes password prompt you... at least Vista just notifies you that the application running needs to go to Admin mode. Now, of course this screws up a few programs which were either: 1) designed poorly, 2) used user options operate outside of the realm of the regular user. The one that hurts the most for me is the K-Meleon browser isn't working properly in Vista (it doesn't save its settings). I refuse to set it to run in admin mode (even though I'm using a browser that noone else in the world uses).
Do I really need to talk much about .NET 2.0/3.0... I means I program with C# and VB... Having the runtime installed by default on Vista really rocks and makes the future look bright for .NET development.
I also like are the sidebar (although I had to use restraint and not install too many sidebar plugins (I'm dangerous with a GUI widgets... I like them, but never use them and eventually turn them off because they are eating too much memory)...
Speaking of memory, do not, I repeat, do not try to run Vista with less than 1 gb of memory (especially if you are a developer... I know this from experience).
The search is cool, but I worry about how much HD space I'm wasting with search indexes.. but so far so good...