Question About Vista and How I Hate MRUs

Is the beach house Windows Vista machine running ok and do you recommend buying it at this time? Yes and no. Hardware issues have recently been a problem, but that has nothing to do with Microsoft. This PC is SLI which means it uses a matched pair of video cards for enhanced performance and one of them failed, thank God, under warranty. After receiving the replacement video card I do plan on going to the 64 bit version instead of the more commonplace 32 bit entry. It's been highly recommended by a fellow tech whose opinion I trust. He runs both versions and raves about 64 bit. There have been some problems with updating drivers and they are now resolved.

Recommended memory for Vista is 1 gig. It will run fine with that amount concerning most applications, but intense gaming, auto-cad, photo rendering, etc., will certainly perform better with 2 gigs and the beach house machine may be upgraded to 3. It's simple. Vista is a resource hog and will tax memory usage. It was designed to perform this way. After checking the task manager this machine just showed over 1/2 gig usage with just two browser windows open and an antivirus program running in the background. That's over 500 megs. That doubles to over 1 gig when GuildWars, my favorite and ONLY online computer game, is up and running. Lotta' memory usage.

Dell has taken the unusual step — for a PC vendor of its size — of toning down its sales pitch for Microsoft's Vista operating system and warning businesses of the migration challenges that lie ahead for them. You can read more in a good, brief article at ZDNet.co,uk. I still recommend purchasing a new PC with Vista Premium and above. Vista Home Basic will not run some applications like QuickBooks, Peachtree, etc. If you have an older computer with less than a gig of memory and less than 1.8 gigs of processor leave well enough alone. Microsoft claims to have sold 40 million copies so far. That sounds optimistic in my opinion. There are more Vista machines showing up in the workplace, but that is usually when a new machine is purchased not people upgrading existing machines.

I do like running Vista Ultimate on this machine. It's a fast operating system and there are many hidden features that work to ensure safety and smoothness of operation. Windows Defender, included protection software, has been turned off and the normal compliment of protection software used here has been installed. Why? Read the Windows EULA (End User License Agreement). They admit they spy on us and what we are doing. I don't like this and am going to great lengths to keep Microsoft out of my computer. They are busy trying to upload MRUs on a daily basis and my attitude is kiss my ass Steve Ballmer! After all, I did purchase this expensive software. And no rental agreement was signed. It's none of Microsoft's business what I write in Word or calculate in Excel. This is a crass invasion of privacy and should be stopped immediately. If the government won't do it, I will.

If you use a PC, it is inevitable that one day you will probably use Vista. If you are comfortable with XP the transition is easy. Contrary to some hype there will be no need for classroom/tutorial sessions. It's still hard for me to fathom that Microsoft has sold 40 million copies. Oh well, people lined up to buy iPhones. Isn't human nature amazing?

"Just 'cause you're paranoid doesn't mean there's not someone after you."
~H.D. Murphy