I use Windows 2000, although I've had a fair chunk of experience with all but Vista.
My experience with Linux (64-bit, I'll grant you) is that while most Linux users will defend it as a great, free, alternative to Windows, the fact is that you get what you paid for. Although you may be able to do the same things as you could on Windows, after a hell of a lot of trial and error, you could probably do the same things on Windows with the same OSS or even more capable and less buggy free software.
The problem with Linux (Well, the main one as I see it) is that the developers and power users are keenly unwilling to see things from the POV of the other side when extolling the virtues of Linux. Quite frankly because they're interested in tinkering with their computer just for the hell of it, while the other side wants to get on with their lives and do something useful. While a Linux dev may think nothing of spending days, weeks, months, whatever time is necessary to learn the nuts and bolts of Linux...it just isn't practical. Windows has effectively positioned itself as an easy-to-use alternative when compared to Linux. No reconfiguring the kernel. No need to build your own software or search for (what turn out to be horribly out-of-date) binaries that only work on a certain distro. No need to worry about hardware not working, or not working properly, and only 1 or 2 people online having even a clue of what you're talking about.
The fact is that after hours of troubleshooting and modifying Hoary Ubuntu 5.04, my install was still less capable, less responsive, and more cumbersome to use than Windows 2000. I could barely use sound because the Audigy 2 NX had virtually nil support, and not all of the 4(!) sound APIs required to say, play a game, supported forced software resampling to a format that the driver would support for my card. In the end, as near as I could tell, I was the premiere expert on how to get your Audigy 2 NX working - but other than that warm fuzzy feeling, I got nothing out of it, as opposed to booting into Windows and spending the 30 seconds it would take to click the "Next" button on the Add New Hardware wizard.
That, and other annoyances, and the total insensitivity of the Linux community to people having to spend hours doing something that would be instantly possible in Windows, eventually drove me away. Of course, the Linux bootloader spontaneously failing and wrecking the MBR of my hard drive also played a part in that.
Now, I wish that Linux really were the next great thing, and it were a viable alternative to upgrading to Windows Vista for me. But the fact is that unless the Linux community moves to capitalize on that opportunity, they are going to miss out on a whole lot of people who don't like Vista, but don't want to deal with the problems that moving to Linux would bring.
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