I understand what you are saying mak213, and I do have to agree with you on some things. For one, I was a little wrong about the security issues.. When I think about the average person I get reminded of how my mom keeps installing toolbars on her computer, installing anything she comes across, and clicking on those flashy adds on the side of the screen. For me, I never get virus's anymore cause I use NOD32 along with the awareness of what not do download.
I guess I've been hanging on to Linux too long, expecting every other update to improve the performance of the OS and everything else. I'm hoping maybe Windows 7 might be like Linux, in the sense that they are able to add all these cool new features without just destroying those without brand new hardware like all of us guys.
But really think about it, for us Vista is not a noticeable performance decrease, but for the average user with the average 2-3 year old POS computer. Vista is a nightmare, even with Aero disabled.
Imo, Vista should be much more optimized for those with older computers, there is no reason for it to take up that much more hardware.