You know, when I first started working with Vista I was like "This OS sucks" then I came to a realization: It's not the OS, it's the drivers/vendors who aren't catching up to the OS.
I am reminded of the early days using Win95 and the whole 16 to 32 bit "experience". It's the same story only this time the hang up is security.
By all accounts that I have seen so far (many of them press that are far from friendly to MS) Vista is THE most secure OS around. Sadly, the price for security is less ease of use in some cases. Video drivers, etc.. being the most notable example. Until the drivers catch up to the OS we will continue to have problems but I see that many vendors are starting to catch up so hopefully we will not have to wait too long.
Check out http://blogs.msdn.com/zainnab/archive/2008/01/22/operating-system-security-vista-xp-and-mac-os-x.aspx for more on the security thing. :)