Some of my audio software refused to work properly and in a few cases it wouldn't work at all on Vista. That's ok when you have stuff that is still being updated, but some of the apps I like best are no longer in production ( Sonicbytes Phrazor for example ).

Instead, three months or so ago, I bought a Sager laptop with xp home edition on it.

These are rather stripped down machines designed mainly for game players and audio buffs, and I have to say it works better ( for my needs.. mainly computer audio and softsynth apps ) than any computer I've owned, desktop or laptop. The price wasn't exhorbitant either.. I customized mine with 4 gb of ram, a better processor, and a faster hard drive.. and spent around $1100.00 usD. You can spend a lot more on these machines, but mainly the higher priced ones have larger screens and more powerful graphics cards and tools.

AJ