if you need another os right away vista is probably not the best choice. if you can wait a little while then vista will be better than most of the choices. Vista will always be better on a pc made for it. installing on an old pc is just unnecesary and wreckless.
if you get the right hardware vista will blow you away. otherwise it will drive you nuts
it is probably the most user friendly windows yet, i dont get what people are complaining about. is it because you have more control, more options or what?