Glad you came back, General, and congrats on your 5000th post!! I think that's why you're one of the few members allowed to quadruple post to increase their post count, lol. I actually just hit 500 myself (talldude had to courtesy to remind me).
About Vista.. well... I think I'll play it safe and wait a few months until other poor souls get it and test it thoroughly - guinea pigs, if you will .
Vista crashes with Limewire running. and for some reason when i try to play Halo it says my product key is invalid (and no i didnt pirate Halo its legal) As for audio and video. i havent had trouble. i have uprotected mp3s and avi's played in vista and its fine. if there is any downgrade in qualiy i cant see it.
but i wouldnt put it past them to tighten things down.
i have vista on a dual boot and most of your expectations are right if it wastn for DX10 that piece of... u know what wouldnt have a place on its small 40GB partition.
as to the pirating - may aswell shoot themselves in the foot
*back to vista*
on my setup:
1GB of OC'd 400Mhz RAM (oc'd to 430)
ATI RADEON X1950PRO
2 HDD 1x30GB, 1x250GB
AMD 64 VENICE 3800+ @ 2.4Ghz
with that setup it was slow as Fu*k even with sidebar off