Yes Vista did suck. It got a little better after the first SP but by in large it sucks/sucked. Macs are better at some things, but those things are dwindeling faster and faster with each iteration of their OS.
the biggest problem with Vista was that it was sold to people or installed on equipment that it never should have been on
there was no fucking way in hell that Vista was going to run remotely well on a machine with 512MB RAM... but that is how it was sold... is it Vistas fault that it was sold by OEM companies on computers without enough resources to run it... or that stores pushed customers to upgrade to vista without giving them real information on its REAL system requirements
people were throwing Vista on old XP machines that barely ran XP and were surprised when the new OS ran like shit or did not like their set up, that there werent drivers for their 10 year old sound or video card... that the XP compatible version of their software didnt work well or wouldnt install in Vista
these issues are not the fault of the OS...
i will readily admit and tell anyone who asks... Vista is a fucking PIG... it eats a shit ton of resources...
but if you have a machine with a decent proc, at least 2GB of RAM, and a fairly decent video card, it will run FINE
i have been running Vista for about 2 and a half years with 0 problems
and i spend a TON of time online searching all over the place, often for weird shit, and sometimes winding up in some areas that i probably shouldnt be
i download shit from torrent sites
i stream more porn in a day than most people do in a month
i keep my shit up to date
i know where i should and shouldnt go, and what to do when i end up there anyway
i know what i should and shouldnt click on, and how to react when shit does happen to pop up
i perform basic clean up maintenance to make sure that my computer stays clean
i dont install shit i dont want or need, i pay attention when installing software
i dont have 75 toolbars sitting in my browser, that i dont know how they got there
no viruses
no malware
no spyware
computer runs plenty fast for my needs
if you are slightly more intelligent than a fucking orange, you should be able to keep a windows based PC clean and running well
i had a linux box for a while that i loved... the motherboard shit itself around the time that i picked up my laptop and i never bothered building a new tower... i still plan to eventually build another tower and will likely run some flavor of linux on it
i have had to use and support a few macs at some clients offices and i do not like them at all...