Everything I’ve read points to a Vista do-over. 7 supposedly runs fast and light, even on old hardware (Plll). I think they see the netbook wave as a major threat. Netbook sales are through the roof, and they can barely run Vista basic. The two choices are XP or linux, and both choices are a threat to MS.
We are happy to have bought the XP. When initially deciding, we were vacillating between Vista and XP. Due to dire circumstances, I did not have the opportunity to read reviews. I could not help but notice the disproportionate number of XP’s being sold as compared to the Vista. The site I visited couldn’t keep the XP in stock, but when I’d look at the stock for Vista there were oodles of them.
We concluded that the XP would be more beneficial. Haven’t regretted the choice.
As long as it's multiple CPUs with 16GB of RAM.
The latest, fastest Intel architecture (Core i7) is basically a bunch of reworked Pentium III cores stuck together in a very fast arrangement. Maybe that's what they meant.