to run vista and have a bunch of apps open at the same time you need:

2GB minimum and 4GB of ram to run it with a lot of intensive apps open (photoshop, movie creation software)
$100+ video card (not onboard)
dual core 2.0GHZ+ processor or 3.0GHZ+ single core
10,000 RPM SATA Hard Drive (reccomended for faster bootup times)

When I get my 10,000 RPM hard drive and upgrade my ram to 4GB I will consider downloading it again. I cant stand over a 30 second total bootup time from the time I turn on my PC.

With 4GB, 10k drive, and a fast proc vista is GREAT. anything else it sucks for people that click really fast and like instant everything.

Shadd - on that laptop, I'd make sure it has a 7200RPM hard drive and 2GB of ram at the minimum to run vista smoothly. Both of those are critical. Hard drives and ram are supercheap anyway.

My company refuses to load vista on the company systems until every system has 4GB of ram and a processor less than 2 years old. Also waiting for Server 2008 to come out.

Check the manufacturer'* website first!!!

My HP touchscreen does not offer drivers for XP and the Vista drivers won't work. Many of your features (usually the fun things such as touchscreens, touchpad mouse, lightscribe dvd, dvd/cd burners) need OS specific drivers. Drivers for XP are NOT the same as the ones for Vistula. For years you could upgrade and downgrade with ease as long as you knew your suite of drivers. No longer. I personally think that peripherals manufacturers looked at Vista as a way of forcing people to buy new crap. I have a list of things that are only a few years old but that won't work on Vistula because the manufacturers refuse to write new drivers for "heritage" or "device no longer supported" pieces of equipment, most annoyingly my 30gb Creative Jukebox mp3 player.

So make sure you can downgrade first.

I actually like Vistula other than the driver issue. It has been far more stable than XP (and I use memory/processor intensive programs). It has fewer security issues (so far) and I like the interface better.

I would have to say XP, but I deal with programming daily and the excess trouble from Vista is a pain.

My parents just bought a new computer with 3gb of ram about 2 months ago. It locks up on them weekly and the only things that have been installed are firefox, aim and their two printers (comp is an HP and both printers are HP) My brother has an HP vista computer that'* about 6 months old and he likes it, but said it has locked up on him too. He'* got 2gb.

This alone has made me dislike vista. I'd say stick with XP until vista gets some more of the bugs shaken out. If you have vista from the factory, you can always put it back on later once there are updates that actually fix stuff. This is what I would do.

Granted, check the driver computability first as previously stated. This may limit your choice.

If you have at least 2gb of RAM then Vista is fine. Otherwise most notebooks have only 1gb of RAM so if thats the case stick with XP.

You need twice as much memory with Vista.

Some programs don't work with Vista.

Vista is a PITA.

XP FTW

Vista is beautiful visually. If the computer can handle it, its great. Otherwise, stick to XP.

I have Vista on my gaming PC and XP on my other PC. I find quite a few of my games will freeze up if too much is happening on the screen where as my XP computer never had that issue.

when you guys say freeze up, what do you mean?

blue screen?

mouse freezes on the screen?

mouse stays moveable but nothing else clicks?

programs randomly crashing?

Vista on my machine only freezes up with games. When playing Hellgate London if there is too much action on the screen everything freezes up then i'll get a window that says Vista is searching for a solution to this problem OR it will freeze up and i can hear the computer working away then nothing. Haven't had any problems with Vista on any software i have installed just games.

i prefer vista even though i still love XP and use it more. I have an xbox that makes it easy to connect to stream files and music to it. Vista can get annoying at some points since every time you DL or watch something on the internet that has a popup and it asks you to allow or block but other than that i love home premium and it has many features. I just had to drop an easy 2500 of a dv9000 but at least its a huge 18-20 screen i think on a laptop.

and it doesn't fit in any of my laptop cases :?