Re: vista or XP for laptops?
really doesn't matter all that much. Vista just has some bad rep primarily because most users don't bother with tweaking it to their own performance needs, and to match the computing power that's available on the system. Otherwise, the user interface for vista is pretty slick, and there are a couple of handy features that make life easier. I've been using vista for the last three years without any problems at all.
That being said, if you want a quick install without having to configure the system too much after the installation, then go with XP.