I bought the s9600 around 1 month ago now, not had too many chances to get out with it and the weather hasnt been that good recently.
Camera is a nice weight, it looks better in the flesh than it does on the web.
Obviously the amount of options you have with various settings will be a bit of a learning curve, the 160 page manual is a hint of what you can expect.
Still, I chose it over a DSLR like the D40 as I wanted video, and at the moment I didnt want the hassle and expense of different lenses.
To begin with I thought that the pictures taken with it werent that good, but I suspect its probably me using the wrong settings. I'm still getting to grips with it now, but I do like the control you can have over pictures compared to a point and shoot.
The zoom is great, although I am thinking of getting a telephoto lens at some point, mainly after having a go at the eclipse at the weekend, which it did pretty well at capturing considering.
Battery life initially sucked with normal AA batteries, but since buying some 2500/2700 nimh ones I have taken well over 300 pics and still not had the battery light blink, so they are a worthwhile investment.
Continuous shooting could be a bit faster, its only 1.1fps, but realistically you wont need it that often.
RAW mode is useful, but the supplied software is a bit of a pain to use, but in saying that it was one of the reasons I chose this camera over a Canon S3.
Picture quality is pretty good, although when at 1:1 on the screen it can sometimes look a bit grainy, but unless you really need a 100% crop of a small object etc then its not that bad.
I've bought some filters for the camera, having the ability to add these on is a nice bonus, allowing you to take some shots that you might not otherwise be able to, or that might not come out as well.
Overall I'm pretty happy with it, and I am sure once Summer comes around and things start to look a bit more interesting then I will be out a lot more.
I mainly bought it to learn a bit about photography and try a few things out, but I'm allready constantly trying to find interesting places to go to use the camera on.
I think in the future I will most likely get a DSLR, but until then this is allowing me to try different things out and get out the house more.
The only other camera I would suggest is the Canon S3 IS, but it all depends on personal choice and whether 1 camera suits you more than the other.
For the money I think the s9600 is a good camera, and being able to add on bits and pieces like filters etc is a definite plus.
Bit of a long post but you asked for it
PS, it certainly makes you feel more manly when you get it out at parties and everyone else has their little compacts
(not that I am using it to compensate for other areas...)
they're both in there now. quality drops a lot at any ISO over 200 according to the reviews. the Fuji is probably better as you've got fewer pixels on a bigger (i think) sensor. 
