SharePoint on Vista
Famous SharePoint features developing company Bamboo Solutions has created installer for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 that install WSS3.0 on Windows Vista. The solution allows developers to create SharePoint solutions on their own machines. The need for virtual machine is still there, so don't hope you can avoid them.
The Bamboo Team Blog calls developers to try out their solution. To get things up and running there is entry titled as How to install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 on Vista x64/x86 in their blog. The installer is free to use for everyone.
So feel free to try out SharePoint on Vista!