I'm a somewhat recent purchaser of GE2000 and I have to say I love it.
I went for the full Pro Plus edition and found it a snap to learn. I
just started playing with it on my own before actually tackling the
tutorial and found it incredibly intuitive. (The tutorial, btw, is
excellent).

I love the auto-trace feature and have used it to import a line drawing
from a pattern book to design a fireplace screen. My favorite faeture
tho, is the ability to "try out" different glass colors on your design
to get a really good idea what your piece will look like finished. And
it helps that once you have your pattern designed and colored in with
the glass you want, you can print out a shopping list of exactly how
much of each type of glass you need to buy (you can set your own
overall 'waste' factor and it will calculate sq foot of each kind of
glass you need).

I've just played with the lamp wizard (which is great, too btw), but
already have a lamp designed that I want to start on when my screen is
finished.

If you have the money, I would suggest to go for at least the Pro
edition, since that will give you a very extensive glass library (I
believe it's over 2300 actual glass samples from 9 different glass
manufacturers) to use as your pallette when you've finished your design
and are ready to add glass to it.

Ranger Jack