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I had XP about 6 months before it was released, from a guy at Berkeley, so I've been using it for a long ass time now. Only yesterday did I finally make the switch to Vista Ultimate 64-bit.
Why? My 8GB (4x2GB) ddr2-800 ram upgrade will arrive in the mail tomorrow, (along with my 9800gtx+ 1GB video card), and I need an OS that can address >3.2GB. I've heard nothing but bad things about XP-64, so I ruled it out.
I tried working with several *nix flavors, and even though I am a very proficient linux user, and avid mightgosoft skeptic, the reality is that if you develop a desktop OS, and it doesn't JUST WORK, it fails (imho). I ran into so many issues with either video drivers (ATI + Linux = pain), or getting Wine working with Adobe, or, or, or. It just wasn't worth it.
For a technicians desktop, I love using Debian/Ubuntu and running the Ion3 window manager. But for a full featured, graphic design/gaming/hd-movie desktop, I was unable to get any flavor to not give me more trouble than it was worth.
I've trimmed the fat out of this Vista install, tested HL2 and Oblivion on higher graphic settings than in XP, with marked improvement, and observe generally faster operation, despite the fact that it's using 1GB memory at idle.
Once I have the 8GB in, I will have the whole OS load directly to memory, and report back in 6 months as to how it's worked out for me. Oh and BTW, I cracked it using the Vista SP1 Loader tool, and anyone who has a problem with that can kindly go play hide-and-go-fuck-yourself.
That is all!
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