I have been wanting to replace my six-year-old Windows Me laptop for some time. I was looking forward to Windows XP, but now wonder if I should wait for Vista at the end of January. Jenifer Blair
Since you have no experience of Windows XP at the moment, I don't see any point in learning it. You might as well make the great leap forward to Vista, which will probably carry you through the next six years. There may be some teething problems, but Vista has gone through extensive beta testing and your normal use of the machine for web and word processing is unlikely to push it into unknown areas.
Vista needs around twice as much memory as XP -- go for 1GB or more -- and a better graphics card for all the visual effects, but the standard XP machine is likely to have the same spec as a standard Vista machine by the end of January.
Even people who want an XP machine may want to wait for Vista, because there could be some bargains around as laptops that aren't quite up to spec are sold off.
