I use Vista all the time at my friend's house. Personally I dont like it nearly as much as XP or OS X. XP is much less buggy than vista, although vista is prettier. lol.
if you want it to be pretty, just skin XP to be like vista, simple i personally wouldnt go vista till they fix the ---- fight theyve started, i like my stable XP *pats*
Open up Control Panel, and type in user account into the search box. You'll see the link for "Turn User Account Control (UAC) on or off". Click it. Uncheck the box, and reboot your computer. You should be done with obnoxious prompts. I haven't had any problems other then a few applications not wanting to run. It runs really damn fast too (Running the 64-bit edition of Ultimate). Stable? Ha!
buy XP now...for some reason, it costs the same as Vista (god knows why) then upgrade when a SP comes out for it.
until they fix what? I have yet to encounter any issues since I have been using it. Thats been since the release of the RTM.