Unfortunately, anything you buy from those 'big box' stores automatically comes with Vista. Remember there are 2 home versions, Basic and Premium. The new Aeroglass interface is on Premium only. And also remember it has some hefty requirements, >2G Core2Duo, >1G RAM, and stock integrated graphics will suck on Vista. You need a good ATI or Nvidia video card.
I agree, either find something (new or used) with XP, have one built with XP if you can, find something used and install Linux (also remember setting up Wifi on Linux can be tricky), or save your pennies for a Mac.
I'm not a Mac guy myself, I've always been a PC guy. But I now have 2 machines running Linux and my firewall/router is an old P3 running smoothwall. Microsoft appears to be forcing our hand, and for that reason alone, I'm learning Linux.
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