Just thought I would post some quotes that I found interesting:

"It hides everything I want to find, and forces me to use Wizards to do everything. I have no idea what the Wizards are doing to my settings"

"It looks like PlaySkool's My First Operating System. It grates on my nerves."

"It is not pretty! It looks like a giant, disgusting piece of candy!"

"The system hides so much from me, and I don't trust anyone or any thing to maniputlate my system on my behalf without it's giving me a detailed explanation of what it has done."

"I am so frustrated by its many, many steps that are required to override its many, many ways of making it difficult or impossible for me to search for things."

"GRRR!!!!
Internet Explorer froze. No matter how many times I hit "end now" and "don't send" error report. I can't get rid of the IE window."

"I have been using it for a few days now, and I really do not see a need to upgrade from [the previous version]"

"If you're a gamer and are satisfied with [the previous version], by all means, don't upgrade and risk losing the ability to play some of your favorite games."

"If you think that Windows ... is going to revolutionize the way you use a computer and surf the web, wake up and save your money."

Guess what? Every single quote above was written by either the media or consumers about WINDOWS XP when it was realeased, not Vista!. You see the 2 places above where I inserted "the previous version"? Those were references to WINDOWS 98.

So when you see negative publicity on Vista comparing it to the supposedly superior Windows XP, just remember that this is the same media that was saying that WINDOWS 98 was better and more reliable than XP. True story. Think about that.

The general acceptance of Windows XP went something like this:

Years 0 - 3: "Windows XP is awful, it won't play my games, won't play on older systems, is slower than previous versions, uses too many wizards, hides all my settings, makes it too hard to find stuff and consumes too much system resources. Windows 98 rulez!!!"

Years 3 - 6: "Eh, Windows XP ain't all that bad"

Years 7 and on: "Oh my god Windows XP is the greatest thing since sliced bread!!! Windows Vista is awful, it won't play my games, won't play on older systems, is slower than previous versions, uses too many wizards, hides all my settings, makes it too hard to find stuff and consumes too much system resources. Windows XP rulez!!!"

See a pattern here?

Here's a pretty accurate, unbias look at Windows Vista, and even a comparison of how its early adoption compares to XP's early adoption:

http://www.tweakguides.com/VA_1.html