have to buy a new laptop how "relaible" is dual booting xp/vista?
 

I know it can be done. I know about the drivers issues but will it really run OK or is it just cheaper to by new software for vista and say fuck it.

I run a lot of 3D programs and I'm guessing they WON'T work on vistatrash.

any input is good.

I need a new laptop in about a month.

PS: Assume I don't understand anyhting and make it simple... (LOL - Ok I'm a little slow on formating and all, make it simple)
Thanks in advance.

duh, I forgot to spellcheck in time. My bad.

Many applications doesnt's work at the xp speed and vista is still full of bugs.
You can make a dual booting operating system but you will have problems if you have windows vista preinstalled and the producer will not provide xp drivers. For example I bought a Sony Vaio 2 months ago with Vista Home premium preinstalled and 1 of my applications doesn't work on Vista.
I had to install windows xp, only that I had 1 majour problem, all the drivers were for vista, and no XP support. I had to look for others Sony Vaio models and see what fit for mine.

I'm running a dual operating system with XP/Vista right now. When you buy/order your new laptop, make sure you get the 32bit Vista OS, with backwards compatible system drivers. When you do a clean install of XP, install ALL the XP drivers as well, don't rely on the Vista drivers to run XP for you- they most likely WON'T. A lot of the software isn't vista compatible yet- or I should say, Vista reliable. Maybe in another year, so running a dual boot is worth it in the interim- what you sacrifice in speed, you gain in stability.

:2 cents:

I dual booted some time back, Vista fucked the XP partition, but some people I know have no problems.

What I am saying is that don't rely on a system that is booting Vista / XP together.

I have 2 drives, 1 Vista, 1 XP - Most BIOS will allow you to F8 (before the OS starts) and select your boot device.

I also don't save any data on either OS devices, I save all data on an external 500GB and back this up to a file server every night.

Vista still sucks but the pro's outway the cons!

Nice reply, and nice gigantic sig lol

Good Luck!