What would you prefer?
 

Dedicated hosting or shared hosting? Besides the price and based on experience, how would you compare the two?

Depends on what you're doing.

Certain things absolutely require dedicated, while others can be on a shared plan.

As Chris mentioned, it really depends on what you're doing.

Dedicated and VPS hosting offer all of the advantages that Shared does not, specifically dedicated system resources and the flexibility to customize settings beyond your public html directory. Shared hosting providers also usually impose restrictions on allowed file types, minimum file permissions, etc.. and when another shared hosting client is hogging resources, your site may suffer.

On the flip side, shared hosting is economical enough to develop and test a site without the overhead expense of a dedicated server.

right now im on a virtual/shared plan hoping to work my way up to a dedicated box

I've had dedicated for what seems like forever, and love it. I did the shared thing when I first started out, but too many shared hosting plans throttles your usage.

I'm not sure I would recommend shared, even to a new webmaster. The advantages of dedicated are certainly evident - and hosting is dirt cheap nowadays compared to years ago.

Just my two cents.