Windows 7 or vista..?

[Octofasciata Aficionado]

XP=Coca-Cola
Vista=New Coke
7=Coca Cola Classic, (has the bells and whistles of Vista, but stable as XP)

 

[zackxf]

I would go with 7. I have to support Windows XP, and various versions of Server 2000/2003, and I have laptops with Vista and 7. I've never had problems with Vista, but 7 is newer, has Aero and everything else Vista should have had.

Make sure your laptop has at least 3 gigabytes of RAM, and a dual core CPU is best, Intel or AMD will be fine.