The fact is that it doesn't matter if Vista is ok or not since it's not in a bubble. If you can't get drivers and/or apps to work properly with it, whose fault is it?
Vista-aware programs work fine, which is great as long as you never need to use older programs. If you do, you could be in trouble. The OEMs still haven't totally gotten a handle on Vista's revised driver model. XP's had flaws, but the OEMs had years to figure out how to work with and around them. Vista changed that to fix things but the OEMs are STILL playing catch-up.
I wonder if Vista SP2 will be out before Windows 7? Or will Windows 7 be in effect Vista SP2? I mean, face it XP SP2 is a different animal than XP SP1, which also crashed on me a lot.