The only reason someone would be disappointed with software, is because they actually paid attention to the marketing hype. If you sit back and just take it as it comes, you are able to maintain a more objective view point.

I really cannot understand why people are talking about Vista performance like it's a significant factor. New versions of Windows always use more resources compared to old versions, because those resources are available. I wont deny that Vista's boot takes longer to boot than XP. Have you tried booting up Windows 98 lately? I did this in a virtual machine a few weeks back and bloody heck, it takes about 15 seconds to cold boot.

Performance is what you trade for new capabilities. I can't seen a single review so far of Crysis that said "Crysis sucks because it has a far lower frame rate than Far Cry.". It's easy to find them same tired benchmarks showing file copy is slower, boot time is longer, game frame rates are lower etc etc. But for that, you get a lot more features and a generally more intuitive interface. Thanks to Aero, applications cannot lock up the desktop any more. SuperFetch makes optimal use of RAM to make application load time practically instant, you don't even need to browse the hard disk or navigate the start menu thanks to the desktop search engine, and if you have to, explorers stacking, filtering and breadcrumb bar makes it easier to get around. Copy performance might be low, but now multi-file operations will gracefully handle errors and give the option to continue. Improved permissions handling and User Account Control now means you can actually can run as a User, for desktop security.

Being a computer technician is not a trade. Anybody who can tie their shoe laces can slot together a PC out of their garage. Anyone with opposable thumbs can reinstall Windows. It's dead easy to get an MCSE. As they say, in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is King.

Being a good computer technician is different. It means actually having an in-depth understanding about the technologies you're dealing with; where they are strong, and where they are weak. It means being patient and understanding how problems arise and how to resolve them. I moved out of the retail PC industry about some years ago an on the greener pastures, but I still build up high performance PCs for friends and colleagues, and I still assist people with their problems. I have only encountered one or two problems with Vista that I could not resolve. Of the 10 or so people I recommended Vista to has been very happy with it, because I've explained the differences and helped them through any adjustments. I don't really want to knock you personally, but 10 out of 10 happy people seems like a better achievement than 1 out of 35-40.