I've heard those rumors on and off for the last few months, and I know people who are clinging to XP as if it were a life preserver stamped "Titanic."
I understand their affection, though I also think Vista got a bad rap. It's imperfections tend to be annoyances rather than true flaws, imho. But it's too late--Vista will be recorded as a failure and will pass unmourned even by those who got along with it.
Hopefully Windows 7 will have at least one feature that many Vista users have enjoyed: IIS, included in the price of admission. For web developers, especially those whose clients also use IIS, it's nice to have on a development box.