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oops, sorry to hear your PC pooped out. What a pain that must be! Hopefully you can salvage your drive and everything on it.

As for Vista, if it's already pre-loaded on a new computer, it's much easier to get into. It's when someone tries to import their XP files and settings, when things get iffy. I have been running Vista for about 10 months, and have had little/no issues. I bought the upgrade and a new (larger) SATA hard drive. Had to first install a barebones XP from my original CD, then install Vista on top of that (choosing the clean install option), but otherwise it went smoothly. Like PCNovice said, it took some getting used to, finding some things and getting settings just the way I wanted them...but that really only took a month or so.

If you do get Vista, I highly recommend a fantastic book "Windows Vista: The Missing Manual" by David Pogue. It (along with the XP versions) is an excellent reference book...really helped me to learn Vista a lot quicker. If you opt for getting an XP machine, at least it will be new and most likely Vista-ready, for whenever you feel ready to upgrade.