Vista, at the minimum needs a 1GB RAM on your machine. (Dont believe the Microsoft minimum requirements.) Thats old story.
Now, the hottest topic is the Digital Rights Management/Digital Restrictions Management. What does this mean? Nothing except that you wouldnt be able to run any DVD or CD that has no copyright information. You create a home video yourself and you can never run it on Vista. Microsoft has also worked so much for implementing the “copyright protection technology” on the upcoming media formats – HD DVD and Blue ray discs.
Guess what. There are lot many companies which are “anti-DRM” and sell CDs/DVDs on the internet. Meaning, you buy a legitimate disc and still will not be able to run on your system.
“Sometimes output is prevented entirely. Vista spends time monitoring itself and what you do, looking for things it thinks you shouldn’t be doing. If it finds something, it will limit functionality on you or, if you’re being really naughty, restart the video subsystem to prevent you from doing what you want.”
Hollywood had been distributing its movies in the uncrackable HD-DVD and Blue Ray discs. But just like DRM, the Vista code for the copyright protection doesnt work. It has been cracked the next day Vista was released. And Microsoft, as usual, raised a patch for it. Now, the DRM for the HD-DVD and the Blue Ray discs have been cracked by a Java utility. Illegal but.
How long are we going to live with something illegal? A 8$ licensed Iran Vista and an illegal workaround to access HD-DVDs, No card reader support. And above all this, your present hardware wouldnt simply run it. If you say that “Windows supports all hardware. So i stick to it”, try Vista. Linux, currently, supports more hardware than Vista. And if you own a 64 bit processor and trying to run a 64 bit version of Vista, you are in a very bad shape still.
Besides, all your third party drivers must now be certified by Microsoft. Otherwise, they simply wouldnt run. And how many drivers today do you think are really certified by Microsoft.
If you really want to stay with Windows, stay with whatever you have now. Vista is too dangerous a pet to play with.