I cant see why people are so against Vista.
Ok you may need new drivers and updated programs but doesnt that always happen when a new OS comes out ?
We went through the same thing going from 98 to XP, I didnt have a PC before ones that used win98 but I assume that happened when the previous OSs were updated.
Its worth having Vista Ultimate just for the extra protection and the media centre part.
The Vista media centre is better than the original windows media centre OS was.
If someone is only just starting out using a PC then they will learn far quicker on Vista than any other OS, in much the same way as they would have starting out with XP over any of the earlier versions.
For anyone who has used any MS OS after 95 they will have no problems using Vista.
Ok I have now been using it for 12 months so I may be a little biased but so far I cant see any problems with it at all, once you disable the UAC (User Account Control) as that can be a pain as it wants confirmation that you want to do something before it lets you do it.
Having said that its probably a good idea for new users as it may stop a lot of IDtenT errors