I would not run Vista 64-bit yet.  I know of far too many programs and drivers that don't support it yet.

When it gets better supported, I would use it because it can address more memory.

Now that Vista's out I figure 3 years from now 64bit will be the standard but personally I'll wait for Vista SP2 before making the switch on my home systems. My office computers will have to wait until critical software (AutoCAD mainly) has moved to the 64bit platform and even then as the "industry standard". I only intend upgrading Office computers as they are replaced so it could be 5 or 6 years before I'm all 64bit.

Good call.

On my home network, I will be running one 64 bit computer on a network of about 5 computers (by the end of the year). As I look at the requirements for various tech jobs, I see a lot of requests for cross platform experience, so I believe it would be wise to be as knowledgable about 64 bit computing as about 32 bit, in the same way that it is wise to be knowledgable aboud various operating systems.

If just ONE app that is invaluable to me on an hourly, even daily basis doesn't function then no amount of other reasons will convince me otherwise.....and..

Its significantly more than one.

  

My experience is that 64bit are much faster than 32bit, but because of too many compatibility issues I am back running to 32bit.

Though, by installing a fresh copy of 32bit Windows XP every 1-2 months you will have the faster OS Ever

Forget about the beautiful Vista for the moment, unless you are one of those people who are using IE, Outlook Express and Office only. Maybe after one year Vista will be an option for me...
Among other issues, all those security warnings with almost everything you are trying to do, were a continues torture I couldn't stand.

Exactly. Though we are already seeing people routinely use 4Gb of memory. For now that is a limitation I'm willing to live with in exchange for program/driver compatibility.

32bit architecture is very restrictive by today's hardware standards, but unless 64bit suddenly becomes better supported it will be the only sensible choice for quite some time.

If you REALLY want speed, just install windows 95 on your current computer.

I tried it once, and it was insanely fast, and it was ON virtual PC!

Bing! Beat me to it! Why 64 bit? Memory! Golden Memories!

Logitech will have released x64 drivers, unless the camera is really old.

Photoshop for me looks fine!

I've been running XPx64 for 17 months now.

64-bit is the future, obviously, and I foresee having 4GB of RAM in a year or two. 64-bit Vista also has better DEP support and PatchGuard. Not that I ever had security issues running as an admin in XP for five years, but it sounds good.
I installed 64-bit Vista because I thought all my hardware would function at least as well as on 32-bit Vista. Unfortunately, a mentally handicapped individual at Leadtek had mis-labeled the drivers for my TV tuner card.   Perhaps they get a tax break, but they've lost a customer.
The only app incompatility I've experienecd, related specifically to x64, was with Rhapsody. They haven't fixed it in over a month, so I will use one of several competing services instead.
I see it as a culling of the herd.

That's an interesting view. It may be even accurate.

I use x64 and have for over 18 months. Main reason for me is to access more than 3gb of ram. No software I use doesn't run on x64 (and I use quite a lot). I use solidworks daily for work. The x64 version of solidworks is far superior to x86. I have just purchased vista ultimate as it runs things faster than XP. The upgrade from XP to vista was no where near as painful as upgrading to XP was. If you don't video edit or 3D model, or use high end apps then you wont notice anything in x64 other than the problems it can bring.

Sounds like your original post was bait as you know the diffrence but you want to point at poeople that appear less intelligent or something.

Myself I have not installed 64b vista yet but my plan is to install it and use it as my main computer and as long as VMware works on it nothing else matters (all hardware worked fine on beta).

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