Zoom, zoom...

Actually, I found myself to be in exactly the opposite position as you. I used to be a big fan of fast aperture zoom lenses, and a 17-50mm f/2.8 was my Canon 40D's primary lens. Once I got a full-frame 5D, however, I realized that the full-frame sensor was much more demanding of lenses and that most zoom lenses under $800 or so wouldn't cut it. So I switched to using primes *almost* exclusively, and it's been great! The Sigma 50mm f/1.4 Aspherical is a killer lens, and when paired with something like a Canon 100mm f/2.8 or 70-200mm f/4 makes for a great kit.

And...the one thing that full-frame+fast prime does better than any other system is providing mazing control over depth of field:

 

I'm also the opposite. My E-P1 is the first camera that has allowed me to appreciate the use of prime lenses (albeit non-native lenses so far). I think that my dislike for primes in the past is due to using Canon APS-C DSLRs. For some reason Canon continue to push 50mm as the stanard prime lens to have, which is fine on full-frame but like wearing blinkers on a smaller sensor camera. I assume it's a good strategy to sell a lot of Canon zoom lenses. If I had tried a 28mm or 35mm prime on my Canon the story might have been different.

 

i've gone from a zoom to a prime, and love the images i can get with it, but feel the restriction causes me to rush instead of take time. i actually prefer to have the ability to adjust how the shot is framed without having to get really close up/far away. I think travelling around a city i would like a zoom and for indoors and evenings i would prefer a faster wide prime.
that said i haven't taken my panasonic 20/1.7 off since i got it...

 

I went from a Four Thirds system with excellent zooms (12-60 / 50-200) to a mFT system with two bodies with a prime (E-P1 with 20 1.7; E-PL1 with 45 2.8). I have a mZD 14-150 as a holiday walkaround lens. For me, it's a great setup.

 

Buying lenses is altogether new to me. All the cameras I have owned have had some sort of zoom (Well, I'm not going to count my first couple cameras....anyone remember the Kodak disc camera?). So I am looking forward to the arrival of the Panasonic 20mm and learning to shoot and live with a fixed fov. I hope it will force me to focus on composition and think a little more before each shot. But there's no doubt that a good zoom gives you access to a lot more shots.

 

I was thinking about this the other day. A lot of people use a small prime (17mm or 20mm with 14mm coming) and one of the small form factor :43: bodies (E-P1/P2/PL1 and GF1/2) as a pocketable camera. Most P&S cameras offer a combination of optical zoom (feasible in such a small package because the lens retracts into the body) and digital zoom. My GF1 does have menu-selectable 2x and 4x digital zoom (I tried the 4x and, while it did look ugly in preview, the captured image looked pretty good on the LCD; still have to check it blown up.) So, why not offer a digital zoom with a continuous control? There could be a menu to turn it on, like there is for the 2x and 4x, and then it could be controlled with either the up/down arrows or the wheel. It's all software anyway (equivalent to cropping the image later) and it could even still capture the full image in the RAW file, but it might help with composition when using a fixed prime. It wouldn't have to be much, either. Even a 14mm that could digitally zoom from 14-28mm (between "none" and the "2x" setting now) would be very useful.

 

certainly an interesting idea, but I'm leaning towards just learning to embrace the "limitation". Before a certain time (I don't really know too much camera history) there was only one focal length. And last time I looked at those photos, there were some pretty awesome ones.