Windows Vista won't suck. No, wait, it will. Well - bear in mind that the negative comments come from a Linux site, so obviously - YMMV. Here's the positive spin:

While the kernel in Vista is still primarily the same one as in Windows 2000 and XP, there have been some significant changes to tighten up security. Fewer parts of the OS as a whole run in Kernel mode - most drivers run in User mode, for instance. Things that run in Kernel mode are prevented from installing without verified security certificates, and even then they require administrator-level user permission. In Vista, it should be much more difficult for unauthorized programs (like Viruses and Trojans) to affect the core of the OS and secretly harm your system.

That's from the upside article. The whole thing is a set of technical points on why Vista will be cool. Admittedly, if security is better, that will be good. However, this doesn't sound encouraging:

However, Vista also requires far more hardware oomph than previous Windows systems. I'd say Intel's recommendations are pretty much a minimum for Vista. I would only add that if you expect to see the fancy desktop, you need to invest in, say, an ATI Radeon XPress 200, an Nvidia nForce4, or a high-end graphics card.

The truth is that very, very few people are going to be upgrading their existing systems to Vista. To make it work well, you're really going to need a new computer. If you didn't buy your PC in 2006, I wouldn't even try to run Vista on it.

That kind of epping of requirements is nothing new, of course. On the other hand, when you combine it with the nasty stuff they are doing with DRM, it starts making me sweat.