For me XP stays the best OS there is. Your disadvantage to XP seems more nothing more then a hardware failure?

Yeah, it seems an hardware failure indeed, but that's also the main problem with Vista: Microsoft runs on almost any hardware. It's a chaos of different manufacturers, drivers, etc.
Apple is a great hardware-selector. They decide which hardware they'll use and probably make agreements on specific details with the manufacturers. Apples are therefor more balanced, I assume.