I've decided to keep my copy of windows XP. And that will be my last windows operating system. 

Since I want to be riding the wave of the future, I shall be installing linux on my laptop's other partition. The windows XP installation will die, but not until its time has come.

Since linux admittedly, is not the best platform for entertainment, I'll be picking up a Mac sooner rather than later.

As a consumer, I'd like to thank Microsoft for helping me make an informed decison.

Thanks to Microsoft, I now know that if my hardware crashes twice, I need to buy a new copy of VISTA. (In contrast, my 2001 copy of Windows XP Pro has made it through four motherboards, and will never die on account of my hardware... not to mention XP has finally made it to the 'mature' point in its software lifecycle.)