I bought a laptop from BB a little over 3 years ago.

It has XP, but is "upgradable" to Vista. I have not done it, nor plan on it.

My basement computer (tower) was built by myself, and has Vista "ultimate" on it.

I really don't think either are better/worse than the other.

The only problem with a prebuilt from anyone/anywhere is that it comes preloaded with all sorts of craptacular software.

Also, most prebuilts now DONT come with any sort of backup disks. Of course BB will make you one for a small "fee". This can make it difficult to rebuild the system if you have total failure.

In any event, if you go Vista, make sure you make some minimum requirements.

1. 2-4 Gig Ram. Nothing less than 2 gig

2. Dual core processor is nice. Something like Core 2 Duo T7200/7300 Don't go the celeron route. It might be cheaper, but won't process as well.

3. If you can swing it, get a separte graphics card. You don't need the latest and greatest, but by pulling the graphics load off the processor everything else works better. Most will be called something like GeForce NVidia. Avoid "integrated". That just means "off the processor".

4. Caveat for screen size. When I bought mine I thought, I needed the largest screen. I opted for the 17". In retrospect, I should have gotten a nice 15", and spent the money saved on processor. 17" is really nice for watching movies, but is REALLY heavy when traveling.

Good luck.