Can I tell you that I love my HP Pavilion 760n. I really do. It’s a fast, reliable machine that looks pretty nice as well. There’s only one problem with it. It’s running Microsoft Windows.
I have been, for the most part, a Microsoft proponent all my life. I started using Windows back in 1988 when I worked for Digital Equipment Corporation. The first version of Windows I used was called “Windows/386”, which translates roughly to “Windows 2.0”. There were no screen savers. There were no nifty looking 3d-type icons. It was very flat, but functional.
For those that have kept up with my blog, you know that I mess around with Linux from time to time. I recently used RedHat 8.0 and I must admit that I loved it. It just had too many hardware shortcomings to fulfill all my needs. It wouldn’t cooperate with my scanner, my webcam and my TV card. And that’s a problem. It’s not RedHat’s fault. Hardware manufacturers are scared silly of Microsoft and keep their drivers secret so they can’t be easily reversed engineered and ported over to Linux. This is how Microsoft keeps the upper-hand and this is how Bill Gates became the richest man in the world.
Earl and I played with an iMac again this weekend. Jinkees, I love that machine. The Jaguar interface on OS X is absolutely beautiful. If I could have that interface for all my users at the office, I would be one happy IT Administrator. My life would be so much easier.
I am thinking about getting a copy of Appleworks for Windows and giving it a spin. Maybe it won’t be as cranky as Microsoft Office and I won’t be getting dumb questions anymore! Office 2000 and Office XP has become so bloated that it drags down the machines we bought just one and a half years ago! This is unacceptable. I work for a small company that has a very limited IT budget. We don’t have the resources to upgrade the machines constantly.
So I have decided that I we are going to become a Mac household. Soon. I do love my HP though – I wish Apple would release a version of OS X for it. It would be the perfect marriage. For now, I’ve put the “OS X” theme back on my Windows XP machine so it looks like it’s running Mac software. Almost, not quite.
O.k., enough geekrant for one night. Earl and I went to the movies last night and saw “The Emperor’s Club”. We LOVED it. Absolutely loved it.
Today we went to Syracuse to my sister’s for Thanksgiving dinner with my Mom’s side of the family. It was great seeing everyone and the food was absolutely wonderful. I snapped a couple of pictures, which I am going to include elsewhere on the site this week.
There’s not much else going on. We’re looking forward to going to Philly on Wednesday night to visit with Earl’s family. It’s a short work week, which will be hectic, but nonetheless enjoyable.
I think I’m going to call it a night.
