Some vista notes:
Boot time is slightly faster on Vista than with XP. We are talking a few seconds, nothing major.
Simple operations, such as copying a very small file, for some reason take longer on vista than they do on XP.
Installing Vista takes an assload of time. That was just the secondary computer, but it's a 3.4ghz so it's not all that slow. When the little window comes up on the bottom stateing "installation may take several hours" believe it.
The upgrade process sucks for doing a clean install. You can't just stick the disk in for XP, provide the code, and go. Nooo, you have to install xp all the way to the point where you have network, Activate it, then install vista which does have a clean install option at that point, but its a ******* waste of time.
The shortcut icon arrows are frigging huge! There is a third party fix for this, but thats kind of the point. You shouldn't need a third party fix to fix that.
The network stack, though slightly less secure at the moment, is faster. They did manage to make the home networking without a domaoin controller setup more stable. which is good. Not everyone has a domain server.
Activesync is not supported under vista, instead you get a somewhat less functional windows mobile device thingy that I personally don't like.
Ultimate edition does have some cool toys. , and the interface is shiny. I do like the media center components.
All the XP functions you depend on are in completly different spots.
Drivers were not too bad, I had one issue wth an asus cmedea onboard sound device that took some doing to get working correctly.
Programs were another issue. I had three that were issues. Diskeeper 10, Norton internet security, and avant browser. Updates for all of them were available, the diskeeper one was the most difficult to obtain.
THe installation limiter has been removed, but it looks like it has the same "call microsoft every time you reinstall" thing that XP had. I hate that thing.
The User advisory controlls thingy SUCKS. Turn it off and you will be much happier. Once that is off the flexibility returns to the OS.
I have not ran into any DRM issues yet, I'm sure I will see them eventually though.
So thats what ive noticed so far at any rate. It's just the secondary computer though. I plan on leaving it ont here for a month, then seeing how things go beore I think of the main one.