You need some kind of OS and XP is a fairly good one.
You need an XP license to run XP. (at least that is what Bill Gates hopes you have). They do have some hardware checking in XP that tries to keep from being a "one disk country". You can't just copy it from someone else.
That is why it is significant that they are selling these systems so cheap. XP Pro is well over $100 in the shrink wrap.
