Quote from Pekelo:
MS is going to provide support for XP until Apr 2014. So you have 4 years not to worry and after that you can buy another laptop or just upgrade it if it still works.
Software can be a concern, you have to check them individually. Since almost half of the computers still using XP, most software is still XP compatible...
Usage share of operating systems for June 2010.)
Windows XP (49.96%)
Windows Vista (19.42%)
Windows 7 (15.70%)
Mac OS X (6.03%)
Linux (1.30%)
iOS (iPhone) (0.90%)