its based on win 2003 whereas XP has windows 2000 base. There are actually a lot of performance enhancements. The onyl downside is you need a ratehr beefy PC to make use of them and if you don't ahve one then your system will actually be slower. also, I'd disable the pretty crap, it gets annoying.
Can't say I'm getting Vista either. I'm waiting atleast a year or two to see what works and what doesn't. By then we should have computers all with Intel Core 2 Duos which can handle Vista easily.
I'd prefer not to waste my money. And its gonna be funny when people find out about the illegal downloading thing that it has. oops now they know. You know you do it, you know it...
i got a friend who was on the programing team. he said he can get me a copy for free if i hook him up with some stuff from my work. im still undecided.
I really want to get VISTA it looks amazing. If I do get it, like you I will get the Ulimate version. Microsoft are going to get even richer from this product .