I have xp and vista I find them both to be stable safe & effective. I do some digital recording but not a pro or semi pro DAW. I don't do soft synths. Or 3D rendering. I do digital photos but I don't use top of the line pro programs because I don't need it.

At Best Buy you can buy a laptop and they'll give you the upgrade to windows 7 free.
the biggest drawback to a new os is 1. the bugs and 2 not enough people with experience to help you out.
You can make vista look and behave almost like xp just don't use all the fancy add ons that you don't need. I don't use the widgets (?)

"if I had to start fresh I would buy a Mac Book Pro using Snow Leopard at least 15 inch screen, I would use boot camp ( I prefer it to Parallels, just personal taste). I would run Windows 7 on the separate partition and you'd have the best of both worlds."

But that's a lot'o learnin' for a lazy guy like me

[This message has been edited by mikeathome1 (edited 09-01-2009).]