I think the main reason Vista was seen as bad was the horrible compatibility. This may have improved later on (I've never used it myself) but it started off bad and as such I think a lot of people just threw it away instantly and reverted back to XP. The fact that Halo 2 only ran on Vista also probably had some effect ("omg microsoft u suck vista sucks").
Personally I think 8 gets more flack than it deserves. Apart from the most obvious changes (Start Screen, Charms Bar, etc), it's more or less the same as 7, but with some nice features like Fast Startup. It's not perfect (and I can see why some people still prefer 7), but it's definitely not terrible.
Personally I think 8 gets more flack than it deserves. Apart from the most obvious changes (Start Screen, Charms Bar, etc), it's more or less the same as 7, but with some nice features like Fast Startup. It's not perfect (and I can see why some people still prefer 7), but it's definitely not terrible.