Sue said:
I have invested a lot of money in my current software (adobe cs, video and
photo editing programs, web editing programs, and etc etc etc). Will my
programs work with the new Vista system coming out in January? Or do we,
the consumer, have to pay and pay and pay to purchase programs we already
have? Vista upgrade will cost plenty throw in software and that's a lot of
money every 4 years!
Hi Sue,
The history has been one that meant users who upgraded their Windows would
have to eventually upgrade much of their software. Sure, some so-called
legacy applications would continue to work, but being out of step with the
o/s would lack functions or sometimes not work properly if at all. The
computer industry sits around ringing their hands with anticipation
whenever The Monopoly (MS) unleashes its newest and greatest operating
system on the world. Dollar signs flash through their eyes and their
marketing machines go into high gear.
Many of us have been smart enough to get off this marketing bandwagon and
move on to alternative operating systems. In the case of Intel86 machines,
the obvious choice is to move to some version of GNU/Linux. Today's modern
distributions are not at all like what we saw just a few years ago. Today,
they're extremely easy to install (easier than Windows), come with very
user-friendly desktops, extreme flexibility, power and stability and
literally hundreds if not thousands of very developed FREE applications.
Becuase of Vista's high hardware requirements, high cost of upgrading, DRM
restrictions and Microsoft's so-called anti-piracy measures, millions of
computer users have or will shortly be looking at the GNU/Linux
alternatives.
A great starting point is to take a look at what
http://www.ubuntu.com has
to offer. It offers everything that an existing Windows user would find
appealing and much more! One can get it as a LiveCD so that you can try it
out and see what you think before taking the plunge. Installation is
incredibly SIMPLE and can be done from the desktop while playing around
with the LiveCD. You can install it to take over your whole hard drive and
wipe out your existing Windows partition or install a dualboot setup so
that you can choose at bootup whether you want to run Ubuntu or Windows. If
you find that there are some Windows applications you just have to be able
to run, there are some nice ways to be able to run them under Linux. My
personal choice is to setup VMWare Player on my Linux desktop (it's free),
load a Windows o/s in a virtual machine and run the few Windows apps on my
Linux desktop when I absolutely need to. I don't use Windows to access the
Net at all, since Linux is so much better for that, so I don't need to
carry all the extra baggage of anti-virus, anti-spyware, etc. utilities
that so slow down a Windows box. My Windows apps run FASTER and with more
stability within VMWare Player than they ever did running on a machine of
their own. Boot times are seconds as opposed to minutes too.
There's a whole other world out there that can free you from The Monopoly's
idea of how you should use your computer. It'll save you hundreds if not
thousands of dollars and give you a far more pleasant computer experience.
Just letting you know ... but I'll put on my flame-retardant gear because
some Microsoft Fanboys around here will start the attack for even
suggesting an alternative.
Can't blame them I guess, as they make their
living trying to support Windows and have a personal financial stake in
telling you that Linux is not a good alternative to Windows.
--
Linux is ready for the desktop! More ready than Windoze XP.
http://tinyurl.com/ldm9d
"Computer users around the globe recognize that the most serious threats to
security exist because of inherent weaknesses in the Microsoft operating
system." McAfee
