"Pop an XP disk in any system made in the last 5 years and you're up and running in no time." Actually, I had enormous problems when my wife got an unformatted

"Pop an XP disk in any system made in the last 5 years and you're up and running in no time." Actually, I had enormous problems when my wife got an unformatted replacement drive for her laptop and I tried to do just that. It was easier to wait a week for a manufacturer-specific OEM disk than to try and debug everything. Ironically (given your followup), the wireless was a huge mess. If you buy an OEM system preinstalled with Linux, it will "just work" as well. See Dell, system76.com, and the Asus EEE for examples.