Anything is possible in XP, pretty much. As long as you can do scripts. I remember a site (I forgot it though), and they had tons of scripts for this kind of stuff. You can do a lot with scripting, but it can be hard. I used some scripts without any knowledge of scripting, because the maker gave good directions on how to use it. I say go for XP.

Edit: In fact, you can do a lot of stuff without RUBY. My friend Bakerman could make it so you could walk around, and if you had the necessary items, you could start a fire and cook food over it. Its a pretty flexible program, but you need to get used to using it, and a lot of the features.