Special Bonus Report - Buy a New Notebook now?

I promised in an earlier newsletter to reveal results of my research on the current crop of notebook computers. Here it is.

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Bonus Issue, June 2007

Newsletter from Bill Stocking and Websiterevamp

To Vista or Not to Vista?

After spending many hours researching the current "state of the art" for notebook computers I felt it would be a waste if I didn't share some of my conclusions. I've tracked the progress of Microsoft's Windows Vista over the last year and decided there are three rational courses of action if you are in need of new notebook power:

1. WAIT, keep your current XP notebook and just upgrade the memory - that's what I did. Windows XP really needs a gigabyte of ram to run well. Who knows, within a year Vista may be tamed down to the point where it's usable by the average smaller business.
2. (At this time there is no great rush on the part of larger businesses to make the switch to Vista - too many reasons to explain here. Many are looking at other options**.)
3. Buy a new notebook equipped with Windows XP but powerful enough to run Windows Vista Business or Ultimate at some later date, like the end of next year. This will set you back $900 to $1,500. You can forget that $600 cheapie you saw in Sunday's paper - it won't cut it. You can still buy XP equipped notebooks with heavy duty hardware from Dell, HP and IBM websites and a few retail dealers such as Micro Center and CompUSA.
   

If you do buy that new Windows Vista notebook you need to be sure of the following:

• It has AT LEAST two gigabytes of ram. The way these things are designed you can't just add another gigabyte of ram to a machine with one gigabyte - you have to totally replace the ram at considerable expense. You won't be happy with only one gigabyte; that's equivalent to running XP on 256k ram - SLOWWWW.
• Your existing software will run on Vista. There are many applications you may need to replace. Example: Quick Books other han the most current version will NOT run on Vista.
  

For many people now is a great time to change horses - buy an Apple.

Changing horses

If your work consist of e-mail, web browsing, word processing and preadsheets then you need not read the rest of this, just buy an Apple and be done with it. You don't need a Windows notebook with all t's aggravations. Apple makes great hardware - better video in articular. And, you can't ignore the "snarf" factor, Apple notebooks
are cool looking.

If you have one or two PC software programs that you run only a couple imes a week, buy an Apple and a copy of Windows XP. Current Apples an run both Apple and Windows operating systems via special software called "Bootcamp", (it's free.) This approach will cost you a few undred more than solution 2. (above) but will probably offer greater long term satisfaction and a lot less down time!

I'm surprised at how many of my "geekier" friends are buying Apple notebooks and running multiple operating systems on them: in addition Apple's OX 10, they'll run Windows and Linux. Remember, the Geeks are usually on the leading edge of long term trends.

The **Linux Alternative would be to buy a computer with Linux pre installed. What is Linux? It's a very capable challenger to both indows and Apple. At this time the only major manufacturer offering Linux pre-installed is Dell.

For doing the day-to-day computing tasks such as e-mail, web browsing, order processing and spreadsheets Linux is more than capable ofhandling the job. Advantages: the system will combine some of the best aspects of Apple and Windows, be free of Windows type viruses andspyware problems and cost substantually less than an Apple. I've used it; I love it, but with thousands invested in Windows graphic software it would be a difficult transition for me. ---

Call me at 312-437-3777 if you want to chat about this article or your website.

Have a great weekend and Independence Day!

Bill Stocking

William R Stocking CMC

Earlier newsletters:

http://www.websiterevamp.org/the_news/internet_e-mail_newsletters.shtml