I use Adobe Premier. I watched a lot of free online tutorials & picked it up prettyfairly quick. I can't say I'd recommended it over the other programs, as I don't have a lot of experience with many other editing programs, for comparison.

A while back, I ordered a new computer from Dell with Duo Core Processors. The mistake I made is buying it with Windows Vista, as that was the only option I had with the configuration I wanted.. There are a lot of quirky issues with Vista & Video Editing. I ended up partioning the harddrive and loading XP onto it as well, so I can dual boot into either OS. It was a pain, creating other hardware issues, but eventually got it all worked out.

If you do decide to go with Vista, make sure there are Vista Compatible drivers for your camcorder for USB. But if you want to use firewire(recommended) instead of USB, make sure you have XP, as Vista and IEEE 1394 (firewire) have known compatibility issues. Issue's that I hope Vista will address in upcoming SP's. But I've also read some reports where the issue's can very depending on the type of Vista you are using (Home, Business, Ultimate, Premium, etc).