Hi Everyone - i've been away from linux for a while, but i'm back with some more questions now!

I'm about to get rid of my desktop system and get a shiny new laptop, which will come with windows xp installed and which i'd like to use redhat 8.0 on as well. I've got a dual boot setup at the moment on my desktop with windows Me and i'm happy with setting that up, but i'm a bit worried about xp - specifically, i believe it uses NTFS and i've been told that this will cause problems! any advice?

also, is there anything i need to know about installing redhat on a laptop

Eg will it recognise the touchpad?
can i use the touchpad and a mouse and how do i switch between them, and will it recognise an external usb soundcard (i think the laptop's sound is bound to be awful so i'd like to do something about it!)

thank you all very much,
paul