Quote - you will no longer be able to run newer software that will be written solely 64-bit.

What about XP64 ? It works well, is very fast, very stable, can easily be stripped down (I run it with the 2K interface) and run all 64 bits application you give it to run.
I think I have a fairly descent machine (Dual Opteron 280 - total 4 cores -, 4 go memory, Geforce 7900 GTX) and though I don't plan on installing Vista because I bought this hardware for my programs, not for my OS
Don't get me wrong, Vista is probably very good for the basic user, the person who do a bit of internet, use office, play some game. It's supposed to be user friendly, fairly secure and so on.
But, when you use your computer do to more demanding stuff like rendering, programing, video editing, you usually prefer keeping the resources for the programs you run.
I don't care about the "pretty" interface, as stated earlier, I run my XP with the window classic style (I don't need big window borders eating my screen space and I prefer using my memory for something else than running the theme service). I don't care for indexing service, for restore point and so on, when I know I will install some drivers I'm not sure they will behave then I use Acronis (on CD, I don't want the services running all the time). Security, well, I have my own firewall just behind my router - a freebsd box - and and it's far better than anything you will find in Vista (of course I don't doubt a REALLY gifted hacker could go through, but I guess a really gifted hacker would have more intersting things to hack than my computer, and anyway, gifted hackers are not those I fear since they usually only "tag" your computer to show they were here, the ones I fear are the script kiddies, and those just don't have the skill to hack a freebsd box).
It's a tendency now to bloat every single program (not to mention the tendency to have programs which will load in memory when you start your computer, or start as services, weither you plan to use them in your work session or not, cf. Acrobat) It might be fine for the basic user since they usually have more processing power than they really use, but it's not too good for people with less basic needs (and if you do 3D you're among those with less basic needs).
And last but not the least, all this DRM crap, I don't use my computer to make pirate copy of DVDs or CDs, I don't have time for that and anyway I have enough music on the Jazz radios, enough movies on TV so i see no reason why I should be bugged down by background programs which will run all the time to make sure I don't do "bad" things. I wonder how long it will take before they finally understand this kind of crap only really damage the "honest" users (Not long ago, I had to answer I don't know how many question about why I had reinstalled my computer before I get a new key to reactivate a software I had bought, I'm pretty sure a "pirate" would only have needed to run a crack to get it to work again, ridiculous
So basically, I wouldn't mind Vista, but it would be nice if at the same time XP64 was still really actively maintained (meaning drivers still written and so on)
I'm aware maybe in four or five years I will have to switch to vista, but then I will probably have a dual quad core or a maybe dual octo core so It won't matter that much, if the computer is 4 times faster than what I have now, I can live with an os 20% slower :)
Ab