Family-safe, on-topic links are always welcome. Use the tool at the top of your post entry widget that looks like a blue ball with a paperclip under it - it's actually the Earth with a chain link - and just copy the url into the popup. The site name and title will automagically appear for you.
Gingerbread was strongly rumored to be a user-interface update - Froyo was claimed earlier this year to be THE final performance update - fwiw. (Never say never and time will tell.)
Some people like to root and remove themselves from the vendor-approved update schedule - others like to stay more conservative. It's preference, there's no wrong way.
I've owned good and bad Dell and Samsung products and don't have a strong opinion on the makers (I do lean in favor of Samsung, though - seriously - the Captivate is a variant of the Samsung Galaxy S - it's their world class phone).
I do have a strong opinion about the performance of any Android 1.x vs. 2.x - going from 1.6 to 2.2 will blow your socks off.
Over in Evo land, many of us were blown away by 2.2 - others honestly didn't see the point and went back to 2.1 and were happier.
I'd say - try each one in the store - just fiddle with it for overall feel and trust your gut. Make them give you a 30 day return/swap guarantee if you can, so if you don't like one, you can go for the other. (I don't know if AT&T offers that these days - and expect a restocking fee if they do - no free lunch.)
Best luck!
