Vista is fine for people who have ONE computer and just want to hook up to the internet so they can plagiarize Wikepedia for grade-school book reports, or just want to download TV shows and music (paid for, of course).
It probably also is "not too bad" for an ENTERPRISE business with good professional Tech Support dedicated to setting up hundred machine networks.
It's a RPI for people like me with "one computer" consisting of fewer than a half-dozen machines, and maybe about that many printers/scanners, etc. And Microsoft provides absolutely no helpful information for those of us in the "middle range" category.
Office 2007 is also just fine for the plagiarizing kid, or for the enterprise office with someone to set up "standard forms" for everything. In my business (fading but still sort of existing) I REQUIRE the ability to create new style sheets that conform to each customer's requirements, and to conform to disparate contractual requirements often "quite peculiar." Office 2007 has not only splattered existing functions in weird places throughout the vast and illogically constructed menu system, they have REMOVED or DISABLED features that were very commonly used in prior versions.
I don't mind "learning a new program" if it does something better, but the new Office simply doesn't do ANYTHING very well.
But Microsoft is going to "fix Vista." They have announced a new campaign with
"all new advertising."
(No mention of new support.)
Successor systems are due for release within about 3 years now. If Vista is any indication, even the IDIOTS won't be able to use the next one.
[Sidebar 1: Gateway has just announced they will no longer offer web or 'phone sales. Take what you can find on the shelf at Best Buy or just go away.]
[Sidebar 2: Recent surveys show that new malware exploits are commonly (>80% of the time) appearing wild on the web within 24 hours of "first find" of a new vulnerability. NOT LIMITED TO MICROSOFT PRODUCTS.]