If all you want to do is get the XP off his drive, and he has a floppy drive on the machine, first find a boot floppy, and boot the system from the floppy drive. To do this you have to change the boot sequence in the CMOS. Also make sure that FDISK is on the floppy. An old Windows 98 boot disk works well. When you get a C: prompt, start FDISK. Delete the partition that has XP on it. It will show up as a non-DOS operating system. That's OK. Once the partition is deleted, the machine now has no operating system on it. You are now free to reload any OS that you want. Remember, XP needs a valid key, but you could also load one of the many fine Linux OS's that are available on the net for free, leagally. If he doesn't have a floppy drive, you can open the case and connect a floppy drive and cable to the floppy connector on the motherboard. Make sure you also plug in the power cable. I didn't include a step-by-step process, but it is not that hard to figure out. Hope this helps.
