Would you pay an extra premium for Windows XP? You might if you select a particular Dell PC as we saw this morning.

Selecting the Customise my PC for the Inspiron 1501 notebook computer reveals that downgrading to XP adds an extra £23.50 to the cost of the desktop. This might be partly because it is XP Professional rather than Home given that the Vista offered is Vista Home Premium but that then begs the question of why XP Home isn't on offer.

Personally I would probably pay the money as that would be cheaper than upgrading the memory to 2Gb is more expensive, memory being the key to good Vista performance, something I hope to be testing myself in the next week or so.

The big caveat though is support. Depending on how long you expect to use the notebook, Vista may become necessary when XP support ends.