I hate Vista

OK so hate is a strong word and should really be reserved for special occasions but I think in this case it actually is appropriate. I switched to Vista at the beginning of the year attracted by promises of improved speed, stability and security. In all three of these areas it has fundamentally failed:

Speed - Vista is slow to start up, slow to shutdown, slow to open applications, slow to copy files, and slow to unzip files.

Stability - Vista is buggy, unstable and crashes frequently. It is not uncommon for me to have to reboot 2 or 3 times per day due to crashes. When programs freeze, task manager often refuses to open so you can't even force quit a troublesome app.

Security - Bitlocker sounds great but you need a computer with a TPM chip, a copy of Vista Ultimate (very expensive) and a degree in geekery to get it working. Oh and if your OS came preinstalled, you have to wipe everything off your hard drive and reinstall to get it working, as I discovered after loading all my apps and docs onto the system.

I'd love to say "apart from that it's great" but that would be a lie. My network card software fails to load every other boot, the WiFi card turns itself off every few hours, the video driver always forgets my multiple screen configuration and swaps the monitors round after a reboot, and the fingerprint scanner fails to be recognised approximately 1 in 3 boots.

Since I have been using Vista, my productivity has nose dived, but at least I can flip through my error messages in translucent windows with a 3d animation effect.

If you're wondering whether to stay with XP or try out Vista, my advice is to buy a Mac. You can't stay in the past with XP forever and I've seen an awful vision of the future with Vista. Even if you hate Macs you'll probably hate them less than you'll hate Vista.