I to have heard some bad things about SP2 and I as well am not going to be using it intill it has been de-bugged.
The I.T. dept were I work have ran "some" tests on it and are currently installing SP2 on all our work PC`s, but this does not realy meen it is OK, I will be monotoring my work station to see if it goes pop fizz, and will let you know if it does.
As for compatability with Hal, I dont have a clue, Im sticking with SP1 for now, I dont want to risk loosing or damaging Emma (my bot).