People hate Windows Vista as if it was meticulously crafted by devils and released by psychopaths. But i believe that Vista may be the best OS of all time, and I CAN prove it to you:
1. Vista made the modern PC
Because of Vista's "Ridiculous" system requirements at the time, people who installed it on their ThinkPad from 2002 or their Sony Vaio Desktop from '03 absolutely thought it ran like an Obese man on a toy bicycle. So when they upgraded to machines that came with Windows 7, they believed that Windows 7 ran better than Vista, even though their machines exceeded Vista's recommended requirements, and even though they didn't try Vista on a PC with the optimal specifications to run Vista. (Note: I absolutely know that some people can't afford an adequate Vista PC or Laptop, and i can't blame you, but couldn't they have saved up to buy a good Vista Laptop and for the time being, stayed on XP, and saved their opinions on Vista before they tried it at its best?)
Vista also brought many features that people take for granted today: Windows Aero, actual 64-bit support, Gadgets, Windows Defender, Windows UAC, Improved Search, BitLocker, TPM Support, UEFI Support, Parental Controls, Touchscreen Support instead of an entire edition, i can go on!
2. If people tried actually making good drivers back then, it would have been stable
Vista had a huge bluescreen problem, but not that many people know it isn't Windows' Problem, the drivers were the big culprit.
Case in point: Nvidia.
According to internal Microsoft data released during the 2007 "Vista Capable" lawsuit, NVIDIA drivers were responsible for 28.8% of all logged Windows Vista crashes. Literally every PC Company had 1.5 years to start developing on WDDM (Basing on the release of the 1st Windows Vista Beta to support WDDM, Build 5111)! If it's anyone to blame the slow PC at the time, It's not Vista, literally everyone else was at fault here.
3. Windows 7 overshadowed it
Believe it or not, 7 Removed some useful features from Windows Vista, had bigger system requirements, and yet people consider THAT to be the lighter release!?
Proof: Microsoft's System requirements for both
According to Microsoft, the system requirements for both Windows Vista And 7 (Both Ultimate and x64):
BOTH Needed 1Ghz Processors
BOTH Needed DirectX 9 GPUs
Windows 7 Needed 5GB MORE Than Vista (If you tell me that Vista needed a 40GB HDD while 7 Neede 20GB, i need to clarify that With Windows 7, Microsoft stoped posting required total HDD space requirements. Windows Vista needed a 40GB HDD as a whole, even though Vista only needed 15GB of space to Install, while 7 needed 20GB to install)
Windows 7 Needed 1GB more than Vista
The Takeaway
While yes, Windows 7 was better optimized for PCs, Windows Vista did 80% of the work that Windows 7 gets the credit for. If you really love Windows 7, at least for the love of God, give Vista some love, I am SO OVER with trusted tech reviewers getting their infor regarding Windows Vista from people who haven't even tried it once.
Have I tried Windows Vista? Yes.
Was it faster than XP? No.
Did i try it on the best Hardware? No. (MSI U135DX)
Did i like it? Absolutely.
So just try it. Please.