Vista wasn't that bad. The dodgy selling it on computers that couldn't handle it was an issue (much like they still do with selling laptops with only 32gb storage).
I still think it was one of the nicest looking - black taskbar with the start button sticking up, sidebar widgets, aero glass etc
I remember the hardware situation being very fucked, due to driver authors not updating their shit in time and people trying to get their older stuff working which worked fine under XP, but was incompatible with Vista's new driver model. It took a couple years until the release of 7 for most of those issues to get ironed out.
I think some of the biggest complaints about Vista were its poor driver support and over-active UAC. You couldn’t hardly do anything on the computer without UAC bugging you for permission when Vista first came out.