Further to the previous answer, I have been running Vista 64-bit for months. I would never go back, it is very stable and I have had very very few 32-bit compatibility issues. I run OpenOffice, browsers, an FTP server, mail servers and clients, AntiVirus, firewalls, games, TV, Windows Media Center, etc..... you name it, I likely run it (but not Adobe CS-3 suite which is why I was hoping someone else would answer that part of your question). Everything works perfectly under Vista 64-bit. I have never had to resort to the compatibility modes, although I know they are there in case I need them.

I have had exactly 2 issues with 64-bit thus far :

1). My TV card drivers are only 32-bit. They work, but when I upgraded my machine to 4GB of RAM on 64-bit Vista, TV stuttered. I fixed that problem as indicated in my previous post by forcing the OS to see only 3840 MBs of my RAM instead of 4096. That is clearly a TV card driver failure, not a Vista problem, and Hauppauge have posted on their website that new 64-bit drivers are coming.

2). My scanner doesn't work under Vista. My scanner is ancient, still uses a USB1 connection. It has old drivers which worked under 32-bit XP, but Epson has already stated they will not be releasing 64-bit drivers for it so the device is not even recognized. There is nothing I can do about it, other than buy a new scanner. I have read in forums that this is very common practice amongst scanner providers because otherwise very few people ever bother to upgrade their scanners. Why would you? I only use mine once or twice a month, so what I have works just fine (under XP). When I need to scan, I dual boot into XP.

R.

Yes definitely go with Vista 64bit. XP x64 was never really adopted well by the hardware communtity. Vista x64 has much more hardware compatability. I recently installed vista 32 bit b/c i was fed up with incompatabilities

I agree with some other posts. I have been using Vista Ultimate x64 for about 4mo. now and I haven't had any problems. It works well.

I recommend it over xp x64 as long as you have the memory resources. Vista definitely uses more memory than xp. My system idles with around 1gb in use and minimal programs running.

One thing cool Vista does that xp doesn't is the ReadyBoost feature. I have a flash drive dedicated to this. helps when loading memory intensive programs like a photoshop or CAD