Good for you that Vista has worked for you. I'm happy for you, really. However, you are more of an exception rather than the rule.
I used Vista for almost 2 months and tried to make it work and like it. Thing is, its just not ready for primetime yet. Not all of its Microsoft's fault. Major companies like HP or Nvidia/ATI seemed to have been totally blindsided by the release of Vista. Not to mention Creative whose crappy Vista drivers defeat the purpose of having a dedicated sound card. My X-Fi sounds like night and day on XP compared to crap on Vista.
Here is a real enlightnening video on this subject.
YouTube - Windows Vista vs. Windows XP