I am very close to feeling insulted. Although I'm going to put it down entirely to different expriences. As for the 10% statement, I have no idea how much performance I'm losing, it was a figure for the purpose of making a point but to be honest I think I could quite happily match your processes with no slowdown and to be honest I don't think Vista is hindering my performance at all.
HOWEVER, I never said that it wouldn't do it to anybody else, I never recommended it either I simply described MY experience so DW can then go and make his own mind up, it's certainly better than other opinions you occasionally see on forums (e.g OMG VISTA SUXOR...XP till I die etc etc.) you know what I mean anyway.
And as for the automated compatibility problems, you're spot on right, it really is a case of luck right now when it comes to Vista supporting your hardware and an absolute nightmare on notebooks.
The innaccessibility of the more in depth customisation options is an initial issue and unless you choose business or ultimate (i'm on home premium). It can take a bit of digging to find what you want, the shell certainly doesn't help I won't deny that.
My support for vista lies in the fact that i've been lucky and my hardware compliments it, I like the 64-bit and dual core compatibility (something of a driver battle in XP SP2 x64 when you use AMD processors) and yes, the pretty colours are appealing lol. Also as much as I hate to admit it, it will become the norm soon enough.
Ultimately if you would like to know the real reason why I chose Vista??
It was soooooo much cheaper than OEM XP when I bought my system and I was on a very tight budget. lol. If I could afford to go back to XP then I would, but until I get word back from Google NY i'm unemployed and broke.