My wife and I both have HPs. Hers is about 6 years old, bought at Best Buy, with XP and I just updated it with more ram and a larger hard drive. My HP, bought at Sams Club, with Vista and is about 4 years old. Both have been good performers. We also have an Asus netbook. I use mostly Dells and MACs at work and like them both. I also have used just about every brand at work. It is all what you want and how much you want to pay. MACs are different if you are used to windows but are very easy to learn and you don't have to worry about viruses...yet.