the choice of laptop versus box really depends on what you want to do. I honestly wouldnt get one unless you REALLY have a need for one as they are a pain in the ass. As far as OS i would say windows XP. I use pro not home but i have had no problems with it. IMO its is tons more stable than win 98. sure it does have some probs but the seem to be less than that of any other MS OS. Im also a big fan of NTFS though it like XP has its faults.