All I can tell you is I used to support hundreds of them (both satelites and tecras). They were used by mobile sales force and endured abuse and had very little issues.
Jeremiah, I don't think Vista will prevail as much as users (sheeple) will be coerced into "this is what you're gettin', enjoy" and for the most part, indentured patronage sits well with them at any cost.
Not to beat a dead horse...but anyone who hasn't gone to
www.ubuntu.com and download and burn an ISO, is doing themselves a disservice. You can run it live from the CD, fairly well on a machine w/ half a gig and a 1ghz cpu.
I don't claim to be OS-tradamus, but I don't see Vista as the future. I know companies are starting to adopt now, but that again is largely under a form coercion for official support.
Seems like lT folks are big on CYA (seems like they like their checks) so, threaten to not "Officially Support" and they're buying the next available version so they can point a finger and save a job. OK, a little jaded w/ the status quo.