Windows XP Media Center Edition

Media centre won't be any better for you if all you want is an operating system for a typical PC workstation.

MCE is intended to be used as a home entertainment computer. It looks exactly like a normal XP install until you run the Media Centre.
The Media Centre operates as a media player for vid files and DVDs, has a photo viewer (which automatically pans accross the images to make the viewing more interesting), and will play mp3 playlists etc...

MCE really shines though when you get a hardware encoding TV Tuner card (and remote control) and pipe the video output to a television. Your computer then becomes a very good personal video recorder (you will never use a VCR again). It automatically downloads your program listings and lets you record by point and click in a variety of quality levels. MCE starts buffering a channel as soon as you flip to it. This will let you pause live TV and rewind to any point in the buffer. I've used lots of TV tuner apps (beyondTV SageTV ChrisTV) MCE blows them all away for ease of use.

MCE 2005 is a great OS but you will want some special hardware to go along with it. MCE compatible Video card with TV out (min Gfx 5200) MCE compat. TV Tuner card (hauppaugge, ATI theatre 550 Pro - All-in-wonder cards are NOT compat) Wireless mouse and KB MCE Remote control (hauppauge remote works ok but requires special config. Mouse actually will work well enough but remote is much nicer) Quiet CPU and Case fan to reduce noise.