I've used Vista. I "borrowed" a key from a machine at Walmart and got the OEM DVD from a torrent site.
I wanted a quick trial. I ended up using it for a couple of months. I liked it, but to me it wasn't worth the money. Too expensive at the time and XP was more the enough to handle what I need.
Nowadays I dual boot between 10.6 and Windows 7. I did a clean install of 10.6 a week ago and love the 64bit deliciousness with Pro Tools 8. When windows 7 comes out i'll use my student discount to get a 65$ copy of ultimate.
I'm not a shrill for either operating system. Like i've said in other forums, an OS is a tool. Nothing more nothing less. I spend too much time troubleshooting OSX and XP that both have their problems and nuances.
Same goes for hardware. When people ask me what computer to buy, I say what's their budget. Aim for at least 2gb of on board ram and a video card with at least 256mb of ram. Any new computer will come with a descent processor to handle what you need. Brands are worthless in the computer world. Personally I had a great time with a whitebox laptop (made by asus) that lasted me 4 years before I crushed its screen when I fell off my bike.
Don't be like the foolish masses. Use what is the most useful to you and learn safe computing practices.
I see you're using firefox
Have you put adblock plus on yet?