For the past year I had been in need of a new laptop computer. My old Dell machine had served me well, and allowed me to do everything I needed to do. It never balked, crashed, got tired, or gave up. But the time had finally come when it needed to be replaced with a newer machine. More memory, more hard drive space and a sharper HD monitor were needed.

My Fear of Vista Held Me Back

I was aware during this time period that Windows had released their new Vista operating system. Although I did not dilligently research Vista, I was aware that many people were reporting problems with the operating system. Many people. Too many people.

Quite frankly, I was scared to make the switch to Vista. Since it has become virtually impossible to buy a new PC without Vista installed, I delayed the purchase for many months.

An Apple a Day

I even considered buying a Mac. There most recent line of commercials, with the psuedo Bill Gates character, had really caught my eye. Couple this brillant advertising campaign with my fear of Vista, and it seemed like a natural to explore buying a Mac for the first time ever.

However, I quickly realized that many of the programs I run would not run correctly on a Mac. I would have to jump through a few hoops, install some parallell software, and generally tweak the Mac to make it perform the typical tasks that I need in my website development. On top of this, those darn Mac Books cost a fortune - at least twice the comparable PC version. I just could not justify the purchase.

Finally, the Day Arrived

I have been a loyal Dell user for a decade or more. I was still inclined to buy a Dell, and now that they are available at local retail stores I began to watch the ads for Best Buy. Two weeks ago, I saw a Dell Inspiron 1521 with 2 gigs of ram, a 250gig hard drive and a 15.4 inch HD widescreen selling for $649.00. I thought this offer was to good to be true. Well, perhaps I exaggerate - but it was a good price for a machine with everything I needed. I bought it.

The End Result

I had the normal hassles with the changeover from the old machine to the new one. Thousands and thousands of files needed to be transferred, browser favorites and years worth of archived email needed to be moved. And indeed it was a hassle, but that had nothing to do with the fact that the new machine was running Vista.

I am pleased to report that after two weeks I have had no problems with Vista. None whatsoever. (Knock on wood). It runs great, hasn’t crashed, runs all my old software (with a tweak or two needed in some cases). It’s speedly, intuitive and has an awesome HD screen that makes my aging eyesight seem like it has improved overnight.

All in all, I am delighted with the new computer and with Windows Vista. I’d love to hear what experience you have had when you changed to Vista.

February 16th, 2008 | This 'n That