Hi, toni220, I have Vista Ultimate 32bit and find it extremely stable, easy to use and, equally as important, customisable. Many of Stardock's ObjectDesktop programs work in Vista extremely well (ie Windowblinds & iconpackager, etc, etc)....and there are some Vista specific apps (LogonStudio Vista & TweakVista) included in the OD suite.
Like Erk, I'll keep XP Pro on my dual boot machine until a couple of 3rd party developers have caught up, but I find that rarely need to go back into XP because more and more apps are being catered for than when Vista was first released.
Yes, there are some who don't like Vista, but only you can decide whether or not you do, and as to which edition you eventually get....there's no magical computer fairies, but perhaps a test drive at one of the better computer stores would help there.
Also, if you don't want to run dreams and are generally a home user, rather than a business user, then Vista Home Premium would suite your needs and will cost a bit less than Ultimate.