PC Magazine has published a nice "slide show" of screen shots from Windows Vista Premium Edition along with comments for each slide. This will give you a good idea of the new "look and feel" of Vista.
here is the link: http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow_viewer/0,1205,l=193572&p=1&s=26945&a=193538&po=1&i=1,00.asp
Vista is expected to be released in late January 2007 to home and small business users. Home users will get two versions -- Basic and Premium. Premium brings you Media Center tools plus the new "Aero" interface which features transparency and some 3-D looks. The slide show screen shots reflect the new "Aero" interface vs the Basic interface. You will need 1Gb RAM and a Vista Compatible video card to be able to use the new Aero interface.