I got Vista the day it came out because I was absolutely sick of how often XP crashed. I have had very little problems since then. Naturally, as an early adopter I faced hardware issues, but by now every single one of them (except one) is fixed. And the one that isn't fixed is for a product by a company well known for, well, not releasing driver updates.

And who the heck said you can't burn DVD's? I don't even think it's possible for an OS to forbid that, in a literal sense.

Vista is a wonderful OS that is leaps and bounds ahead of XP - and, as modern software, it will remain supported for years and years (especially given MS's track record for releasing major OS upgrades). You're much better off buying a Vista computer than sticking XP on it.

Now, if you're running an older machine, just forget Windows altogether, and go with Ubuntu Linux. Fast, efficient, and wonderfully easy to use - and it has virtually no security problems or viruses. But I know this thread isn't about recommending Linux. I'd rather recommend getting a Mac anyway.

Vista, in my experience, is quite secure and far speedier than XP. While I do recommend Vista a thousand times more than I do XP, I also recommend getting a new computer for Vista. Don't install it on some old pile of crap - you won't be doing anything good and it'll only bring you trouble.

Also, Windows 98? Whoever's using it, are you aware that you're using unsupported software that is over ten years old?!

Oh, and if Vega does everything you can do with a PC, then I do everything and a half - believe me, Vista works. For anything you want to do.