I've been in IT since the 286 (nearly 20 years) and I know I don't know a lot.
However I do know CA-Clipper inside out and can develop an ISAM database extremely well.
If we're into "my dad's bigger than your dad", I've been in IT since 1966, long before micro procesors and PCs.
My only experience of Vista was the on the laptop I bought for my son before he went off to University last year. We were unimpressed. I'm sorry, I don't care how good it is technically, the UI is absolutely horrid! We had problems connecting it to the home network and the internet, the help facility didn't and it just looked so garish.
I like XP Pro, and I do run as an admin, but, believe me, the wife and brat definitely don't!
This is the problem IMHO. Too much was changed when it didn't need to be. Let's face it: an operating system is a mundane piece of software that allows users to run programs, store files and, increasingly, provide a secure environment in which to do it.
Ever since windows 95, the same basic user interface has been honed through 98, ME (shudder), NT4, W2K and XP. Changes have been made, but never on such a massive scale that users got overwhelmed.
That all changed with vista. I suspect the software engineers got carried away with the task of developing a boring operating system and started doing what comes naturally to them - adding
bloatware features because they're "cool".
Granted, a lot of the boring things like security have been enhanced but that's not what the end user appreciates. The end user spends 5 minutes trying to do what he did in 5 seconds before and concludes that it's "cr@p" because nothing is where it used to be. He then loses out on all the good work that had gone into making it more secure, etc.

Kevin