So last week again, I spent a couple days with Windows Vista -- this time Build 5365.
Driver support was improved in most aspects -- it recognized most of my hardware without me having to even install any drivers.
However, the two main driver deficiencies were still there -- my sound card was still not supported (no surprise, apparently the Audigy 2 series is just not all that popular anymore) and my webcam, though fully capable of audio under 5365, still sent video that was horribly scrambled.
Other bugs: Vista's Media Center, though somewhat faster overall, still had a tendency to hang, forcing one to terminate the process and restart it. Also, after a few days, Vista's "explorer.exe" process started to hog the CPU, pegging it up to 50% usage after about 30-45 minutes, at which time one would have to terminate process and restart in order to get another 30-45 minutes of use out of it.
That's the bad news -- the good news is, it was in fact less buggy than 5342, several issues having been addressed. Just not the issues my particular hardware specs present, unfortunately. lol
I'm looking forward to 5372 (the "Beta 2" milestone build) and I'll be keeping an eye on Creative's drivers section to see if they come up with any new beta drivers for my card.