Windows XP Service Pack 3
As of today's date, all new PCs from Squirrel Solutions will be supplied with Windows XP Service Pack 3.
Although there have been reports of problems with Service Pack 3 on Windows XP, these issues are rare, and in any event only manifest themselves when the service pack is installed on top of Service Pack 2. If the service pack is slipstreamed into the original Windows XP installation, there are no issues with it.
So far we have identified only one device which causes any problem with Windows XP Service Pack 3. This was a USB webcam which in fact was not officially supported on Windows XP at all, and did not support WIA (Windows Image Acquisition) drivers. It had been designed for Windows 98, and just happened to work on Windows 2000 and XP with Service Pack 2. This particular piece of hardware was some 9 years old, and thus life-expired anyway. We have found no other hardware that causes any issues.
We are also still carefully monitoring the situation with Windows Vista, but at present we are not satisfied as to its stability or speed. Extended testing is still taking place, but at this stage we will not be offering Vista as an option until the ongoing problems are resolved.