Vista gets a lot of negative PR. It's not that great; I prefer XP to Vista. But if you just use it for a few weeks, you'll realize it isn't that bad. Most of the problems people have with it are because they're used to how you do things in XP, and when it's changed between XP and Vista, you have issues acclimatizing to it. The graphics do need stronger hardware than some other operating systems, but you can disable a lot of the effects, and it will still look decent. Some people are annoyed by how it constantly asks you if you're sure you want to run this program? Are you sure you want to let this connect to the internet? but it's just for your computer's safety. They're trying to ensure that the system doesn't let viruses run, or connect to the internet; they want to leave you in control of what happens on your computer. Ubuntu does the same thing; hell, any decent antivirus program will do the same sort of confirmation thing!
Honestly, I don't see why people hate Vista so much. Yeah, it's pretty overpriced, and yeah, it has a lot of shortcomings. But if you don't like it, don't don't click me it! There are other options! (I don't mean Mac, either. If you're complaining about how things are different between XP and Vista, you'll have the same problems with a Mac. And they're expensive) Dekar has converted me; this is the best alternative:
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/ (There are other distros of Linux that are good as well, but Ubuntu is the best for general use. The others are specialized)
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