Book Reviews and Money Saving Tips

I am in no way, shape or form recommending you jump right into Windows 7 regardless of the Microsoft commercials. My 25 years of microcomputer experience has clearly demonstrated that you never want to be the initial installed base of a new operating system. Frankly Windows ME was discontinued before I ever installed it. I don’t think we sold one copy of it and were thankful that we didn’t. However if you are bound and determined to be on the sharp point of implementation, you really don’t have to pay full retail. I found a great article on ZDnet.com that details multiple, legitimate ways to move to Windows 7. Rather than repeating the article, here is the LINK .

One of the ZDnet bloggers posed a question as to why so many people are still using “obsolete” Windows software. This may be another case of standing in the trees and not seeing the forest. Most of the people in the computer industry make rash assumptions as to the level of expertise and fervor the average user has. The bulk of the studies or surveys are done by contacting corporate users. This makes sense, you can get a great number of responses easily but you are dipping your toe into a limited pool. Seldom is there any attempt to find out what the small business or home user wants, let alone needs. I’m retired, I just want my computers to run. Admittedly after spending 25 years in the industry I have a little more expertise than the average user. I also have a network. I have no interest in upgrading the OS of my machines. In 25 years I have seen nothing but incremental increases in ease of use or reliability in operating systems. I have seen MS automatic updates t...

Microsoft has consistently produced operating systems we love to hate. Microsoft has brought ambivalence to a new height. The move from 95 to 98 seemed like a good move. The advent of ME seemed to reflect the dying throes of Atlantis. 2000 was good and after the initial bugs were bottled, XP has stood the test of use. I have no issues with Vista but apparently I am not main stream in that arena. Even Intel didn’t adopt Vista for internal use. Now we have Windows 7 or Vista rev.2 depending on your point of view. Is it the harbinger of the future or the death knell of Microsoft’s dominance? W7 claims to have solved all of Vista’s problems and added features. They will have a wealth of confusing versions which is always a down side. On the plus side, MS claims that the specifications for your hardware will be no more rigorous than for Vista. The device driver debacle may not occur since W7 claims to work with Vista drivers and even XP drivers. Note I will be using “claims” frequently sinc...