Vista is a mixed bag right now in my opinion. It has a lack of driver support at present and it's got a lot of bugs. Although the first Service Pack RC (release candidate) has been released recently and hopefully it will take care of many of the bugs and also add a lot of additional driver support to the mix.

It's your call Glenn. XP is a relatively stable and solid OS with tons of driver support. If you go with XP or Vista make sure you get a laptop with a minimum of 2GB of RAM in my opinion though. 3GB would be better yet especially since you're running Photoshop.

Also, if you are doing music applications you should at least consider upgrading the Hard Drive at some point to a 7200 RPM model. Hitachi makes a blistering fast 7200 RPM 2.5" HD. Seagate also makes a great 7200 RPM 2.5" drive. If you could buy a laptop with a 7200 RPM HD already installed that would be better yet.

Happy shopping!

Best,
Mike