I spied this article on Slashdot this morning: Dell Computer, one of the largest computer manufacturers and the world, is bringing Windows XP back to many of its systems due to customer demand. Good for them! If they had just continued to offer it on their business systems, I wouldn’t have had to return a brand-new laptop to them.

I’m sorely tempted to go down to my local computer parts store and stock up on OEM licenses of XP Pro while the gettin’s good. XP may only be available for another year or less; that’s barely enough time for Microsoft to work out everything that seems to be wrong with Vista and for the base of useable drivers to grow to acceptable levels. I sound kind of retro-curmudgeon, I know (“why in my day, we had cartoony candy-colored windows with only a little beveling to pretty ’em up, and we were luck to have that!“). But Jeebus, all I want out of my PCs is for them to work. Now that it has been acknowledged that Vista will not be the cure for the ‘ware that mals you (“dun Dun DUUUUUNNN“), all that’s left for me to focus on is base functionality, which I have to admit XP does pretty well. Oh, and gaming.

I could care less about eye candy. If I want to look all cool and cutting edge, well, I have my Macs. 😛