svdl,

After I typed the above, I went back and read all the previous comments. I was only replying to a few here, but also responding to many previous Vista bashing threads I've read elsewhere.

I wasn't responding to you. I know you know your stuff, and I suspect your opposition to Vista is more a preference than a lack of understanding.

I probably was a bit more harsh about it than I should have been, but these kind of threads tick me off.
I do agree MS has kind of screwed up with the way they've implemented Vista. I do know it's not really the fault of many of the people out there when the PC manufacturers and dealers are creating and selling machines which aren't up to the task. That is a problem which I know alot of casual users aren't even aware of until it's too late.

As for power, well, I suppose the home user market will be heading in the lower power direction. Myself, I want more more more. I just bought a 1000 watt PSU for the new machine I'm building, which is going to have a Core 2 Extreme, and possibly a pair of nvidia 9800's in it, if I decide to go SLI - I might just get another 8800 GTS for now and leave the SLI for later.
Well, the 9000+ series uses less power than the 8000+ series, but even so, with 8 gigs of DDR3 and a 150w core 2 extreme quad core CPU, there's a definite need for high power and much cooling. Those of us who use powerful number-crunching 3D apps and want to play the latest, greatest games simply need all that power and performance.

Well, I'll end this with this: I personally like Vista, and have had no troubles with it since I beat it into submission. I have also seen the evidence with my own eyes how on my system almost all my graphics apps and games do better on Vista x64 than on XP x64. LightWave and Poser, for example definitely perform better and quicker. Not drastically so, but int he case of Poser and OGL, the performance in Vista is drastically improved. Other programs such as modo don't seem to run quicker, but not slower, either, and are very bit as stable. I haven't had a single - not one - BSOD under Vista x64 in all the time I've been using it, which is since October '07.
And of course, you can't have DirectX 10 in XP, which is a definite good reason to go Vista, especially if you're a gamer.

If other people have other opinions, that's fine. :-) 
I just don't like reading "Vista is a steaming heap of crap" all the time, mostly from people who simply don't understand it.
For the record, I do believe MS should have made the basic versions, such as Vista Home (or whatever it's called) a little more intuitive and less automatic in its maternal ways.