Greetings!
I'd like to investigate Django but I'm running Windows XP. I've installed XMPP and I currently have Python 2.6 installed (is it true that 2.5 is the only version that will work with XMPP?). What else do I need to get up and running? Any tips, recommended IDEs, etc?
If your just going to play around with django i'd recommend using the built-in development server. for easyness have a server launcher shortcut in your project folder.
runserver.cmd:
@echo off
python manage.py runserver
As for the IDE, i'd recommend Notepad++.
As Sam says, for development, use the dev server. Using a "real" server is actually more of a pain because you have to make sure it reloads your project when you make edits. You can also beat it into hosting all your media while in a development environment, if that's what you need (as most people do).
As far as IDE's go, Python is a hard language to provide auto-complete features for due to its dynamic typing. That said PyDev (an Eclipse plug-in) can make life easier for you but it's really down to personal choice.
Half of Django is writing HTML templates, so make sure you've got a good HTML editor to hand as well. Eclipse (IMO, naturally) is far too clunky for this (even with Aptana, et al plugins)
If you really need it to work under Apache, try this from the Django docs. Otherwise, use the development server. If you want a simple way to get started, try Instant Django, although this only has Python 2.5.2.
Finally, concerning IDEs, a good text editor such as Notepad++ or SciTE will suffice. If you want a Python IDE, there is a good list at the Python wiki, and SPE has always worked fine for me.
(Oh, and one tip: have two cmd windows open - one for the server and one for testing, syncdb-ing, etc.)