Paid my Microsoft tax today ...

Yes, for a number of reasons, we needed to get another laptop (good reasons, we are growing, and our new person needs it).

Unfortunately, it is pretty close to impossible to find a laptop without Vista. I would prefer XP Pro out of all the Microsoft products. It does appear that HP will be offering laptops with SuSE on them, and hopefully Dell will be offering them with Ubuntu and others. So for now, we are all constrained to pay the Microsoft tax on every new system purchased, whether or not we want the particular flavor, or any flavor of Microsoft on there. Just remember that this, somehow, in some alternative universe, represents “more choice” for consumers. Well, until we get something that approaches real choice, I am going to have to work harder to get a reasonable OS on this machine. Will scout around for unused licenses for XP Pro. That and Office 2003. Interesting how real choice costs more. Will try out this Vista for a bit. It if can’t print, connect with our network, do VPN, or lock itself down (or run clamav/other antivirus) then it will be ditched in favor of a Microsoft OS which can do these things.