What MS screwed up
Mainly the biggest problem is that MS insisted on keeping old APIs around rather than deprecating them and moving them out after a bit. In doing this they have allowed applications to continue using outdated modes of operation that went away several OS versions ago. While in the short term this would lead to more complaints, in the long run it allows the OS to lose complexity. We all know that complexity is the biggest issue in software development.
The second thing that MS screwed up was to not recognize that their longstanding effort to keep old APIs around had led to a lot of software that wasn't ready for Vista. Indeed most of it wasn't ready for NT. In particular much software didn't support limited access accounts. This caused one of Vista's biggest features, limited access, to be turned off on a regular basis. I would wager than probably at least 25% of all Vista boxes out there have this turned off so that one or another software can run.
OpenGL support was another area that they messed up. But it isn't just Vista that is a problem. We have found that transitioning from XP to Vista is a trade off in bugs. XP had certain bugs that Vista fixed and Vista brought new ones to the table. Supporting both systems has led to certain compromises.
Finally, they screwed up because they didn't deal with the press that popped up with faulty claims. For example, I've heard that Vista is a resource hog and is slow. The problem is that I've found it to be significantly faster in many cases. Mostly due to the fact that with desktop composition turned on it doesn't need to redraw repeatedly.
There are cases where it does seem to bog down from time to time, but XP did the same thing.
Vista is Good, Windows 7 is Better
I've more recently switched to using the Windows 7 beta and subsequently the RC. It is stable and has some nice additions to the interface that are pretty nice. It is in fact becoming more Mac Like.
However, if you are waiting for Windows 7 to cure all the Vista problem, think again. While MS has addressed some of the compatibility issues with old software there are still problems with UAC. I'm still having to run DevStudio with UAC turned off in order to use IncrediBuild. And there are certain debugging tasks that can't be done without turning it off system wide.
If you can't make your development tools play well with your OS then what kind of a message are you sending developers?
Window 7 looks like it will be well received and should help MS turn the tide on losing ground to the Mac. Although I hope not. I think that we need more parity in OS market share percentages in order to improve the overall competition.
Heres hoping that Apple releases a nice response to Windows 7 that pushes things to the next level.
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