I bought a Gateway just before XP was released. They provided me a free upgrade which I installed a few months later. I've been happy with XP except I've had a modem problem that nobody seems to be able to solve, so I don't know whether XP is to blame, or the hardware. I think that most of the problems people have encountered is when they're upgrading, which is why I'd recommend starting with a new system that already has XP installed. Except for the modem problem, I love XP. It's a lot more stable and it can let an individual application crash without forcing you to reboot.