Though fortunately this time we don't have to go via ME!

I'm with you on this one, and having tried it out there is no denying it is a huge step forward in terms of power and usability. It isn't an operating system for the faint hearted though, and if your PC is more than a couple of years old there is a good chance you'll at the very least need a bit more RAM to keep things running smoothly.

Fortunately, most of my hardware is pretty standard stuff from the big name manufacturers, so though driver support has been a bit buggy in the past month or two, I've been able to find drivers for the best part.

Don't rush out to buy it just yet, XP is still more than adequate. The only thing that really bugs me about Vista is the licensing, though I've not been impressed with that aspect of Microsoft software for oooh... ever?