Is Norton Ghost the best of the best?

Hi

I would like to use a program to ‘ghost’ the machines on my network. The machines come in all sorts of flavours and run Win98SE, Win2kPro and XP SP1.

I have seen many references to Norton Ghost, and have seen it used on ‘restore’ CD’s provided by manufacturers. Is Norton’s Ghost the leader in this field? Are there better alternatives? Are there any downsides to any particular ‘ghost’ program?

Also, I have seen that some users recommend ghosting a computer after the OS has been correctly configured, and before any applications have been installed – is this really an issue?

What are members personal experiences?