I've got to ask: how exactly does your new laptop expressly prevent you from installing XP on it? The only explanation I've been able to come up with is that you only had a recovery disk from an old computer instead of a real install CD...

I have two problems with Vista (not on my machine, I'm still on XP MCE):
- poor driver support: my mother-in-law's computer is always blue-screening and I can't tell why. There's no heat problems, the memory tests fine, everything looks in order, but it blue-screens alot.
- networking: I can't STAND the new networking area of the control panel. It's infuriating!

I'm sure there's more, but I've not installed it on my own machine...