There are a large number of improvements on XP
Finding drivers is a dream with vista.
When you say 'dream' I assume you mean NIGHTMARE.
I dunno, Vista was just too slow and clumsy for me, the basic system overheads are attrcious.
It was a lot of trouble trying to get drivers for it, I've not bothered with it for months now, judging by your post Microsoft have re-written it from scratch and given it a second release.
The only improvements i can see on Vista is the enhanced visual look, apart from that it's offers nothing tangible over XP SP2