am buying new vostro 1500 should I get xp or vista

Hi, this is my first computer purchase and I'm getting a Vostro.
I'm fairly new to computers and not sure which OS to get, XP or Vista?
I've read VISTA has bugs and to wait a few years but I've read good things too. What do I do?? Please help.

 

put it this way - if you're comfortable paying for Vista later on, get XP now. somewhere along the life of that laptop you'll likely make the swtich to Vista, especially if you decide to take the plunge to DX10 games. Vista does have some compatibility issues with some hardware and software, but i don't think it's anywhere near as bad or buggy as a lot of people make it seem. the biggest caveat with Vista is that it's sweetspot is typically 2gigs of RAM. if you run anything lower it'll hit the swap file much sooner and more often.

 

I don't game and probably never will. So Vista will work fine on a vostro?
I'll be using it for school, email and internet

 

yep, Vista works perfectly fine on a Vostro, and if anything i'd recommend it over XP just because the sleep function works flawlessly on it.

 

imo (and im probably the minority) i like vista better than xp. i am very happy with vista and now run it on all my machines.... i have the 1500 with vista. just make sure to have a MINIMUM of 1gb ram preferably 2gb..

 

is there any reason not to get vista??

 

imo only if you have to run or need to run older things like some design programs etc that are not vista ready yet.. or most say xp is much better for hardcore gamers. i find i can run everything just fine under vista games included..

same goes if you dont have the hardware to support vista dont go there vista sucks bad if your computer cant support it... the 1500 should HAVE XERO PROBLEMS as long as you have enough ram. i actually have 4gb installed but 1-2gb is just fine with 2gb being the sweet spot for most

 

If you are "new" to computers, I recommend Vista since most people having difficulties seem to be veteran users who have set ways of doing things.

 

So long as all your programs are pretty recent - I'd say 5 years or less old, and your peripherals are pretty recent, you shouldn't have any problems with Vista. I haven't had any non-game programs fail to work.

Stability seems better on XP than Vista to me - I've had two bluescreens in 3 weeks with Vista (one just browsing the Internet) and none in four years with XP - but that probably will improve in 2008 with the first Service Pack.

 

Thanks for the responses! Vista sounds like it will be alright since I don't game. I'm getting ready to place my order! Any more information would be great!
PS. my college does not support Vista but they said they thought I'd be ok with it

 

will the service pack(s) be free?

 

Of course....M$ isn't that cheap.