I personally have no need for Vista, and will not be getting it. The 'improvements' are mostly about security, which is fine for a new user, but I don't need them at all since I know what I'm doing. The bad side of Vista is its dog slow boot up speed, and huge system requirements boost over XP.

However there is one thing to note, that as far as hardware support goes, if you go from XP 32bits to Vista 64bits, you're really making 2 different upgrades. 64bits drivers need to be completely rewritten, you can't use the 32bits one. It's the same thing for XP. Also unless you are running a server, or want more than 4GB of RAM (a 32bits OS can only support around 3.5GB of RAM address space), most people could stick with a 32bits version.

I also agree with the statement "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."