I have no choice but to use Vista on my HP notebook; lack of XP drivers, have not found ONE Linux distro that has drivers fro all my hardware
HP has ALL the XP drivers out for their notebooks, you just have to hunt them down. Usually, you look for a similar hardware notebook model with XP. It does take a lot of hunting, but it can be done. I have successfully "downgraded" at least 20 different HP notebook models to XP.I have spent up to a week hunting drivers, but ALL HP (and any) notebooks can be done, you just have to put in the time.
When a SALESMAN tells you you can't run XP on a machine, he is flat out lying to you.
90% of my business at my computer store was downgrading Vista to XP.