Demand compensation from Microsoft

Submitted by Rick on September 10, 2007 - 7:04pm.

Riding Shotgun with Rick

If I was independently wealthy, I would give discounts to customers with Windows Vista. Alas, I am not independently wealthy and my business supports my family, so I charge for time I spend in a client's office or home. One customer , today, could have saved 30-40% off their bill had they bought one of the few remaining laptops with Windows XP.

This brand new Toshiba laptop with only 1 GB of RAM (half of the minimum need to run Vista with any appreciable speed) took a full 4-5 minutes to boot up each time it required a boot. And that was down 2-3 minutes after I took off the bloated trial security software and the other trial software loaded on this machine. True, the extra software contributed to the slowness...initially, but even with the startup cleaned up, the machine was pathetically slow. Her husband's almost 5 year old Dell desktop with 512mb of RAM could run circles around this 'new' laptop.

With Microsoft releasing nearly 50 updates in just the six months since its release and their first service pack (major re-tooling) already announced as well, Microsoft has pretty much admitted that Vista has not lived up to its own expectations. I sure hope Service Pack I for Vista (due out next spring) brings some major improvements to this seriously flawed operating system.

In the mean time, for those who want to listen and save time, money and frustration, here are my suggestions for those looking to buy a new computer:

1. Go through the business arms of Dell, HP, or small, local retailers and get Windows XP with 1 GB of RAM and you can work circles around Vista machines.

2. Consider getting a "new" machine by switching to Ubuntu Linux on your existing machine. If it is less than 7 years old, has at least 256mb of RAM, and other wise functions well, you won't be sorry.

4. STRONGLY consider a Macintosh computer from Apple

5. IF you absolutely MUST get a Vista machine, make sure it has AT LEAST 2 GB of RAM, a dual core processor, and a fast, dedicated video card. Unfortunately, this means that to get a decent running Vista machine, you will need to spend a minimum of $900-1000 and probably upwards of that.

If you liked this post, consider buying me a beer!

Linux

Submitted by Smart Computer User on September 14, 2007 - 2:24pm.

I'll add to this, find a good high end pentium III about 1 gig speed, add ram to 512MB or better. Get a 80 gig hard drive. Then add Linux Mint Cassandra, it does audio and video streaming out of the box. It is a suped up version of Ubuntu 7.04, it picks up where Ubuntu leaves off yet it has the same easy style and installation is very easy.

As far as wireless goes, please check E-Bay as there are linux compatible wireless devices. There is a closeout on E-Bay for a outboard wireless that connects to USB. The linux compatible version cost about $1.00 more than the windows/mac only version. No one needs to be tied to Vista, Xp machines are still available and full featured Windows 2000 machines are selling on E-Bay for less than $100 used.

Take this one step further, with Ubuntu one can easily install on the same hard drive as Windows. After installing Ubuntu, there is the grub on start up where one can choose between both operating systems. Those that like Ubuntu, will love Linux Mint Cassandra. With the release of Ubuntu/Kubuntu within the last few years, we are no longer tied to either Windows or Mac. Speaking of Mac, did you know it was possible to install Ubuntu 7.04 on a Mac? I did and it definately works better than the old OS 9.0. It is a new world now, the choice is now yours.

http://ubuntuforums.org/ is a great place to start.