From what I've heard, Vista is the real deal, more stable & user friendly than XP and with much improved security features. The main knocks I've heard are 1) it's new, therefore a little buggy and 2) it's a total pig, requiring a lot more system resources.
Has anyone here used it enough to give a reasonably informed opinion? The time is drawing near, I'm afraid, to trash my current PC and build a new, more powerful machine, based on a Conroe proc. When I do, I imagine I'll probably go with Vista, provided it has no major "gotcha's".