Less than three weeks ago I bought my first laptop to have Vista pre-installed. I only did so because there was no other choice apart from getting a Mac, which is not a serious option for me due my professional requirements.

Let me tell you that it took a lot less than three weeks to come to the conclusion that not only does Windows Vista suck and then suck again; it is to all intents and purposes unusable for serious work.

And not only that, Toshiba have only gone and stuck a 32-bit OS on a 64-bit machine haven't they. I wouldn't be surprised either to learn it was using only one of the two processor cores.

Anyway, I'm now overjoyed because I managed to find a 64-bit final issue of Windows XP plus enough drivers to do everything I want.
Vista has been condemned to purgatory and things are working like they were meant to (which is a completely relative statement in as far as ANY version of a Windows OS can be considered to have any kind of merit at all).

OK I don't have all those lovely Toshiba features that Toshiba built into the machine. It's shame really as I was getting quite attached to irrelevant things popping up all over the fooking screen while I was trying to do something *I* had decided to do.

So in summary, if I was buying a laptop should or shouldn't I get a Toshiba one with Vista installed?

If you're buying a laptop new then you won't have any choice whether to have vista or not. I completely agree with Mr Head though, once you've gone beyond the prettiness of Vista you'll realise its a fooking nightmare.