1. Is it a stable OS? Very
2. Will I run into any problems setting it up for Dual Boot with WinXP? Probably not, I didn't.
3. Does SAMBA work well within FreeBSD? Yes
4. Anyone run into specific hardware problems (i.e. problems with certain soundcards, video)?
Of course, usually fixed with a new driver, my card was configed w/out a hitch
5. Does it have kernel support for access of NTFS/FAT partitions? Yes
6. Does anyone recommend any specific tips/tricks for configuring FreeBSD upon first installing it? Not really.
7. Is the learning curve extremely steep? It's a little different coming from linux, but once you learn it seems more intuitive, to me, than most of the linux distros.