You're kidding, right??
Where do you define the line? For example - Outside manufacturers had code samples and documentation about the changes in Vista well over a year in advance of GA. Jack@sses like Creative took a year *after* GA to release "functional" drivers
(ignoring that certain functionality is still broken), and then only for their newest cards, forcing the public to trash their old stuff. And yet, every other moron in the world blames audio troubles on Microsoft. TWO YEARS, and people are still blaming Microsoft for the screwing they're getting from Creative.
While I fully understand that QA is key and that Vista needed more work. But IMHO, an awful lot of the blame lies with 3rd party vendors who either ignored the changes, or used it as an opportunity to force people into buying replacement items by end of lifing them for the new platform. You can't expect the OS maker to provide drivers for the thousands and thousands of devices out there that they don't make. Fully agreed that Microsoft should be held to task for what Microsoft screwed up. But blaming them for other's failures isn't right, productive, or fair. If you drive a Chevrolet, buy a new Radio and you make it 10 miles down the road before the Radio explodes... You don't scream at your Chevy dealer, do you?? Yet this is apparently the exact standard MSFT is being held to. And it is, and has been a steaming pile.
Vista, while I had pretty good luck with it, was pushed out too fast and we weren't ready for it. It would have been one thing if Vista had been an improved form of XP (look basically the same with some fixes), but it wasn't. It was totally new all the way around.
If you change it, everyone cries because it's different... But if you don't change it, then everyone cries 'cos you
"...haven't done anything..." I agree that some of the things don't make sense from a user perspective, and others - like the much reviled UAC - are just annoying. But once you understand that the Search Box is now your Friend and you don't need to remember paths any more, then it makes a LOT more sense and really is faster and easier. Type it, and it's there.
I agree there are a number of things that should have been done better, and had Microsoft released Vista this year looking like 7 does now, the outcome may have been different. But <shrug >