It seems ironic that the strongest competitor to Windows Vista is its predecessor. Windows XP quickly gained popularity over Windows 98 with vastly improved stability and reasonable performance, even on older computers. The improvements in Windows Vista have come at a far greater cost to performance than Windows XP. If you're thinking about buying one of the latest ultra mobile PCs, then Windows XP should be your choice of operating system rather than Vista.

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Another reason to stick with Windows XP is that you want to use old hardware or software that is likely to be incompatible thinking about upgrading, then make sure your PC comfortably exceeds the Windows Vista specifications in order for the upgrade to be worth the cost. Memory is a very important factor and upgrading shouldn't really be considered unless the computer has at least 2GB of memory.
As we've said, Windows XP will continue to be available from smaller specialised retailers and hopefully better drivers will have been written for Vista by the time all sales of XP end.