Question

I need to buy a new laptop soon. I'm a computer consultant and need to have speed with many windows running simultaneously, but I don't play games. I like XP and don't really want to deal with Vista, but I'm concerned that if I stay with XP I might end up with compatibility issues a couple of years down the line. Any thoughts?

Answer

Chris was happy to give a response:

I just posted on my experiences with Vista here: http://radven.livejournal.com/94658.html

Right now - I have to recommend that you avoid Vista - particularly if you are a consultant and will need to be compatible with the software that your clients are running today. A few years down the road once Vista stabilizes and the third party developers catch up with compatibility issues - then you should considering upgrading or buying a new laptop.

If you get a laptop now - it may be worthwhile to get one that has hardware that supports both XP and Vista. This way you can start out with XP now and upgrade to Vista later, or start out with a legal copy of Vista now, downgrade to an old copy of XP, and then reinstall your laptop with Vista later. Getting Vista bundled with your laptop could save you some money, even if you end up running XP for now.

Good luck,
- chris // www.radven.net