It is interesting to note that System 7 is being pushed so hard by Microsoft, but as Hank Skawinski reviewed at the June SPAUG meeting, industry is not even budging to move to System 7.
Why should they? XP works! Industry is not in the research and debugging business for Microsoft – you are by default.
Microsoft is desirous of having as many people test their products as possible and, of course, your feedback has to help debug the product.
Now we get to the coercion of the Company wanting to have more money because they had their first year of loss recently.
In order to force current users of XP to gravitate to System 7, Microsoft has raised the XP license cost from about $130 to about $180, which has the effect of making users balk at the higher price of replacing their XP computer with another XP computer.
The licenses will generally be available to corporations that have standardized on XP and need to create another batch of computers to place into a newly-formed department—but the licenses will cost more— raising the thought that maybe it is time to shift over to System 7. This scenario is especially potent for the single owner that has a problem and needs to either redo XP or start all over with System 7 for not much more. Further, the XP license will be increasingly more difficult to buy in single or small lots.
And you don’t have the bargaining power of the big companies to purchase XP licenses in the $40 range as an auto company does. In reality, the large corporations buy a site license from Microsoft that can be used repeatedly to almost unlimited extent as long as the computers remain within the control of the licensee.
So you will probably be squeezed into going to System 7 as the licenses allocated to the local stores dry up and the ability to purchase a new XP license is exhausted in accordance with the Microsoft plan.
Until then, if a new computer is needed for some reason, you should ask the local store to “downgrade” the computer from System 7 to XP.
Comparison of laptop vs. desktop
Although a laptop runs the same software as a desktop, the assumption that the laptop is merely a smaller version of the larger brother is not entirely correct.
Starting with the assumption that you want a laptop because your needs include portability, be aware that you will pay a price for that decision. I have one, and it is used to set up communications interfaces and as a SPAUG support device (SPAUG also owns a laptop) for the meetings. Support for the meetings is an excellent use of laptops. But. . . .
A laptop’s design is totally controlled by power considerations.
● The CPU will run not much more than 1.6 GHz, but a desktop will operate at 3.0 or thereabouts when dual cores are considered. So immediately the laptop will be slower by about half. Since most computing is characterized by tremendous amounts of wasted cycles, possibly your application will not be noticeably slower – maybe.
● Then again the hard drive will be running at 5400 RPM and the desktop will be at least 7200. So you will lose another third of the speed and this one will be noticeable.
● Generally the laptop will have a narrower keyboard without a numeric keypad – except for the wider laptops. If you are doing accounting in the field, not having a wider keyboard can affect your performance to a great degree.
● Then there is the requirement that the battery be recharged periodically and the battery is guaranteed to die at the most inconvenient time. Guaranteed. Either that or a 5000 foot extension cord. If you need continuous operation, there is the considerable cost of several batteries and the charge time associated with the recharging.
● And then there is the absolute requirement for a sprayed screen – e.g. a screen with a non-reflective coating. I will not buy a screen without the coating, but the most recent trend is for the manufacturers to omit the coating. If you plan ahead, you can order the coating be put on at the factory. That means that I do not have to wear a dark shirt if I am going to operate any computer in bright light or with a window behind me.
● Further, a laptop has a given configuration and if that needs to be changed or added to, you are generally out of luck. Worse, parts are almost guaranteed to be available only from the manufacturer or at the local repair facility. If you are a tinkerer, forget repairing it yourself for general lack of specialized parts.
Laptops (and netbooks) have their place; just consider all of the ramifications.
● Also, make sure that the Function key is to the RIGHT of the CTRL key, as that is the way all keyboards were set up for years. Now a few of them come with those two keys reversed, which means that the reflexes you have developed over the years will get you into trouble.
● A similar problem is associated with desktop keyboards that have the POWER button where the PRTSCR key was—causing one to shutdown the computer when you push the key to print a page. I was not happy when this happened to me after a 6‑hour run and I needed to capture the results on paper.
The “How to Unscrew XP” classes have been attended by about 25 members. The expected slowdown means that we can have the class the first Saturday after the meeting. Other times can be arranged for those that have a constant competing Saturday morning activity.
Standalone Virus Removal
A recently-started standalone virus removal capability lets you create a virus remover. I have one created by AVG. We each need to make a set of those currently available (about 6) so we all can share and use them.
Editor’s Note: I did a bit of online checking for [ standalone virus removal ]. Snapfiles found two candidates in its freeware < http://tinyurl.com/2a9e2zl >. The Google™ search < http://tinyurl.com/2f24966 > provides links to more sites for info and/or downloading.
