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My dad has a Lenovo SL300 (27384FU) originally sold with Vista, which he downgraded to Windows XP due to software compatibility needs. However, with critical security update support ending in March(?), he's contemplating jumping on the $40 Win8 Pro upgrade before the 31st, especially since he just got driveby-pwned by a website virus and had to reimage this weekend, i.e., he' going to reinstall everything regardless.

I did some quick Google searching and the only thing that jumps out is some possible minor issues getting Bluetooth and camera support back online, and he doesn't use the camera regardless. Does anyone here have info on whether there might be any bigger problems running Win8 on this system?

I have the SL300 part of the equation, but not Windows 8. As long as he has zero need to do any 3D craziness, then you'll have a functional Win 8 system if you use the right drivers. The x4500 GPU in that this is the real limiting factor, but it is enough to run the formerly-Metro interface in an acceptable if not teflon-smooth manner. If he's OK with the interface used in Win 8 (MAKE SURE OF THIS BEFORE YOU UPGRADE), and if he is willing to live with the limitations of his hardware (it's not for playing 3D games), then it should be OK.

You should check to see if the touchpad on the SL300 has drivers to support the new gesture features of windows 8 (swipe from edges, multi-touch gestures, etc).

You can use Win8 without these gestures (we lived without them for a couple weeks before lenovo released beta Win8 touchpad drivers supporting gestures on our X230T), but they can be nice to have.

Also, it's worth pointing out that if lenovo doesn't have a proper power management driver for the SL300, you may not get full battery life potential in Win8 with generic power management drivers.

FWIW Lenovo does list these available driver packages for Windows 8. My dad doesn't game or run AutoCAD so that's no big deal. I know he won't be thrilled with the MUI interface if he converts, but worst-case there's Stardock. Given that there are about ten million exploits to compromise XP these days, he really can't keep using XP forever without the benefit of an iron-fisted proxy, which an ordinary home broadband network obviously doesn't have.