My son-in-law, the computer genius, warned me against Vista. MS is feeling the heat from Apple and had to do something. Makes you wonder how much real talent is still there if Vista was the best they could do. Everyone I talk to who knows anything about computers is aware of the issue, it seems. 50% of the Inspirons on the Dell site are available with XP in one of 3 versions. It's probably a bust for MS as it should be.