Let's Talk About Vista and XP

Do I like Vista? Yes. I run Vista Ultimate on my gaming machine and enjoy it. The security is great, Guild Wars runs at optimum, my Microsoft Office Suite 2003 works just fine and it starts up and shuts down quickly. The Aero Desktop runs and is a nice interface, but I disabled the Sidebar since I rarely spend any time on the desktop. This is the second installation of Vista Ultimate and it has run smoothly. This is a good operating system that has the potential to be great. So, if buying a new machine don't be afraid of Vista Premium and above. Vista Home Basic is a complete waste of money. That's why it is so cheap. Stick with Vista Premium and above.

There are exceptions to the rule as usual. Hey, this is a brand new operating system and it requires stouter hardware. So did Windows 95. So did Windows 98. So did Windows 2000. So did XP. Getting the message? Don't think you will readily upgrade a machine running Windows 98 to Vista Ultimate. Chances are that this won't EVEN happen. True life hardware minimums for Vista? Be sure that processor is somewhere around 2 gigs. Dual core is nice, but single core CPUs will do just fine. Memory? Minimum of 1 gig and 2 gigs are even better. Video? Vista likes 128 meg cards and above although it will run with less. Bigger the better. Hard drives? 50 gigs or more.

When not to run Vista and stick with XP? Check the hardware specs listed above first. Then check and make absolutely sure that any essential proprietary software used in your present situation will support Vista. If you have a device that is approaching 7 years old, a camera, a scanner, printer etc., that you can't live without, for now, stay with XP. If you have installed Windows Vista and find it not a joy DON'T trash it and retrofit with XP immediately. Try a fresh installation of Vista from scratch and be sure to do ALL the updates before installing any software. Use a good anti-virus (AVG Free Edition for example) and purchase a good defragmentation program like Raxco's Perfect Disk. The resident defrag application that is shipped with Vista sucks. Make an effort to use Vista. It'll be fine and the first Service Pack will be out soon.

The beach house has an advantage because there are several machines on the network using various operating systems. There is even a secondary Windows 2000 gaming machine on this network. My laptop still runs XP, but is qualified for a Vista upgrade. Yes, I do have two Linux machines and am adding a FreeBSD PC this weekend. Presently the server is Windows 2000 but will soon be switched to BSD with Linux capabilities. So don't think I recommend an operating system because it's the latest, greatest techno voodoo. Research has been done. What brand of machine? Presently Dell and Hewlett-Packard are my preferred linear architecture builds. Laptops? Only Toshibas at the beach house. If not a Toshiba laptop go with Dell or Hewlett-Packard.

A good rule of thumb is never buy an entry level machine. Buy from a reputable vendor. For max performance, hire a tech to do a custom build and don't fuss about the price. Linear build gaming machines are expensive so if you have one built don't bitch about spending money. Same goes for servers. There's a very good chance that a custom build will also be less expensive than a prepackaged unit for these huge powerful network boss computers.

Hope this helps!

"Using the power of decision gives you the capacity to get past any excuse to change any and every part of your life in an instant."
~Anthony Robbins