Well, there it is. The official Microsoft stance is not to wait for Vista if you are considering a new PC purchase. Fair enough considering that most hardware out there right now is likely wearing its “Vista Ready” badge by now anyway.

But even considering this, you have to admit that it sucks that you have to pay for the OS twice. Once with the bundle on the machine you just bought and then again upon the release of Vista itself.

Perhaps in the end, the best course of action would be to simply buy the machine in question with a copy of XP Pro, SP2 on it. This way there are not going to be any surprises as the newer OS has its bugs worked out. Please, don’t kid yourself into thinking that Vista is going to be flawless out of the box. Windows has proven time and time again that it performs best when given the chance to have a shot at getting driver issues worked out early on. So in the meantime, it’s simply a matter of using what you know works as compared to what is “supposed” to work.

Hey, this is just something to consider when buying that new PC this time around. Unlike last year however, it’s time for a new OS choice - make sure you are making the right one.