Siaf, XP certainly has some "issues" when it comes to cooperating with older OSes on a network.
Probably my biggest annoyance with XP is that a shared printer on a 2k machine with a password set for the user requires you to log into a shared folder on the 2k machine from the XP machine and enter the password on every reboot. If you don't, XP won't be able to use the printer. For some reason, XP doesn't just give you a password dialog when trying to print to a shared printer on the first print after a reboot.
Personally, I prefer Win2k, but not for reasons that matter to the average home user. I find Windows XP to be too dumbed down and slower to configure for an experienced user. It also includes some services that are potentially serious security holes that I personally disable. (Bits - background intellegent file transfer service, remote registry manipulation service, remote assistance, automatic updates, universal plug and play, messenger service, etc... Some of these are in Win2k or are added with Service pack 3 (or later), but they can be disabled in 2k as well.) I also object to some of the provisions in the Windows XP EULA (end user license agreement). Product activation is also a headache for me, since I make a lot of hardware changes between OS reinstalls. As you noted above, most of the XP added utilities are all freely available anyway or not of much value. Basically, what this boils down to for me is that XP adds nothing to Windows 2000 that is particularly useful.
One other thing I forget to mention that may actually make a difference is that only Windows XP can gain a significant performance boost from Intel's Hyperthreading. Windows 2000 and Windows XP do have some slight differences in how they switch between threads, which can make Windows XP feel slightly more responsive and allows Hyperthreading to give a performance boost when running multiple applications. Thus, if I had a Hyperthreaded P4, I would probably have to bite the bullet and go with XP. (This might be a more important issue to consider after the NDA lifts on the performance of Prescott cored P4s tommorow (Feb 2nd)... Without letting on too much too soon, Prescott will really require proper Hyperthreading support to show any significant (if any) performance boost over Northwood 'C' type P4s before SSE3 optimized applications are available. This means for best performance, you better be running Windows XP.)
