Andy I hear ya, I got prices for two different machines that were on XP then I got one for a Vista machine, the XP ones are 6 months old AND 200 to 400 dollars MORE expensive.
I am not that against Vista but the productivity software I use (Excel and Word) are 2003, that wont install on Vista. BUT I talked to my pops this afternoon and he told me about 3 stores that were selling 2007 Office for under a hundred bucks, student version but he said he is doing all the things he used to do with his pro version, as he is an accountant I figure the abilities of the software are fine for my basic invoicing.