The "problem" with Vista is that the majority of people who hated it had never tried it and was joining the bandwagon on what they had heard. I remember that video someone made where they disguised Vista OS to be a different one and then they said their thoughts about it and then it was revealed that they were using Vista.
To be perfectly honest with you, I love Vista as an OS, yes it was released a little too early but at least Microsoft tried to make it better over the years it was out.