buy the system with Vista and load XP on it, you will have the restore disk for going to vista later after bugs are worked out of it, and most importantly the license covers vista AND XP. i run 2007 as one of the IT staff we are testing it out, I hate it, really I do. Things have been moved around too much and simple tasks have to be re-learned.

laptop versus desktop is an interesting question, lots of people want laptops and then when I talk to them about it they don't really have a need for it. any time somebody asks me for advice about what to get I spend time talking to them about 1. what they currently use computers for 2. what they realistically see themselves using it for in the future. most systems are overbuilt for what a real user needs.

Red