I've been using Vista for almost a year now and I've never had any problems. I used XP for years before buying/building a new computer that came with Vista, and I haven't minded the upgrade at all. If you have XP and are buying Vista, it may not be worth it. But if you are getting a new computer, you might as well throw Vista on it.
Yes, many of the administrative utilities and smaller things that the common user wouldn't use have been hidden or changed to some degree, but a little bit of experience and patience will get you around that.
As for security and stability, I've had no problems with that as well. My computer has never crashed, never got a BSOD, etc. With XP, I used to get random crashes from time to time, so Vista has really been a blessing in that sense.
@Glaedrin: Also, I've never heard of anyone having the network connection die for no reason or HDD spinning up for no reason. It certainly hasn't happened to me...not anymore than it would on XP anyways.
People are really too hard on Vista though...it is actually a really great OS if people would just give it a chance rather than being scared of change. Remember when XP came out and everyone was using 2000? Everyone bashed XP, saying how horrible it was and unstable...just a tweaked up GUI. With updates it became a great OS and now everyone praises it over Vista. Well I think that Vista is now at the point with updates that it easily surpasses XP and there is no reason to stick with XP if getting a new computer or just feel like an upgrade.
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Desktop:| Dell Inspiron 531 | Windows Vista Basic | AMD Athlon X2 6000+ 3.1GHz | 3GB DDR2 667Mhz Ram | EVGA 8800GTS 512MB | 2x 250GB, 1x 750GB Harddrives |
Laptop: | Dell Inspiron 1525 | Windows Vista Basic | Celeron 550 2.0Ghz | 2GB DDR2 667Mhz Ram | Intel x3100 | 120GB Harddrive |