Sure, Vista may be bad for
your purposes. Your reaction is understandable.
For most people, they just want it to work. As long as your applications, drivers and hardware worked with Vista, you'd be happy, yeah? Most people would. For those who have the appropriate software etc... Then Windows Vista can be a real treat.
As you probably know, in an attempt to press forward, things
have be changed though. This means that some 'improvements' and 'features' will ultimately create issues with older software and hardware... This is to be expected with any new operating system.
This could be paralleled between Windows Me and Windows 2000 or even XP. 2000/XP is undeniably better, but XP 'broke' a lot of applications, required entirely new drivers etc... When it was first rolled out, it was a total mess. Now we all enjoy its superior stability, features and speed with modern equipment.
So don't worry.. After some time passes, Vista and its software will be polished up and you'll enjoy using your computer. The bad thing though, is it may be another few years.

It's a shame you HAVE to get Vista. Thanks, Microsoft....
Mac OS is quite good in many respects. If you're referring to compatibility issues; then no, Mac OS has been
much worse.
You get asked two or three times if you want to look at the CD you put in and it askes you two or three times is you want to install it!
This installer is definitely the BEST installer in any Windows so far. You only have to click a couple of things to install. This is a VAST improvement over previous Windows install discs, not to mention the graphic 'repair utilities' options etc... You can't possibly complain about the Vista installer, as a Windows user.
I like your title...