[Vision2020] rebate checks

[Chasuk]

On Thu, May 8, 2008 at 11:30 AM, Scott Dredge <sdredge at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I've never been been a big fan of Internet Explorer.  I was on Netscape until their quality degraded due to lack of funding and then I switched over to Firefox which performs very well for me unless I need to go to the Microsoft update page which forces me over to IE. Also, has anyone switched over to Vista?  I bought a computer last year that came loaded with Vista, but I was having enough subtle trouble with it that I finally just reinstalled XP last weekend on that machine.  In my opinion, there isn't much reason to go to the Vista OS.

Vista is a significant improvement over XP, theoretically, but all of
those theoretical improvements are under the hood.  It doesn't share a
single line of code with XP, the original "Vista" project having been
rebooted  in late 2004.  I wouldn't recommend it as an upgrade,
especially as Windows 7 is due in 2010 (the successor to Vista).

Microsoft made a major mistake by releasing a 32-bit and a 64-bit
version of Vista, a mistake that they apparently intend to continue
with Windows 7.  Currently, when you but a new PC (laptop or Desktop)
you are buying a 64-bit machine.  This has been true for at least 18
months.  Yet it likely includes a 32-bit version of Vista.  They also
made a mistake by releasing  Vista Home Basic, Vista Home Premium,
Vista Ultimate, Vista Business, and Vista Enterprise  versions.

I've recently switched to a Mac, and it was the best computing
decision I've ever made.  The hardware is more expensive, but the OS
is the most flawless I've ever used.  If you want to stick with
cheaper harder, go with Ubuntu, a popular flavor of Linux.  It is
capable of anything that Windows is, unless you are a major gamer, in
which case Windows is still the only viable option.

Here are my OS recommendations, in descending order:

Mac OS X 10.4 or higher
Ubuntu 7.10 or higher
Windows XP Pro
Windows 2000
Vista Premium 64-bit
Windows 98 SE

If you are a major gamer, my recommendation would be revised to this:

Vista Premium 64-bit
Windows XP Pro
Windows 2000
Windows 98 SE
Mac OS X 10.4 or higher
Ubuntu 7.10 or higher

Note that these ordering are always debatable, particularly in the
gaming list.  My logic is that stability is always important, so a
stable, capable gaming rig is more desirable than a capable, stable
gaming rig.  These days, any system that you buy is more than capable
for 99% of us.

Chas