On The Big Windows 7 Party

I’ve spent the last few days flat on my back. Acute impacted sinusitis does that to you--you get dizzy and can’t sit up for too long at a clip, until your eustation tubes drain and the pressure equalizes in your head. As I write this, I can sit upright for about an hour. Yesterday, it was 35-45 minutes. The day before that, 30 minutes tops--and walking unassisted was a real experience. To top it off, my vocal folds have been hamburger for four days now. If all goes well, I should be okay by the start of the workweek.

While I’ve been recovering, I’ve noticed that Windows 7 has finally been released for those of you who have PC’s. This is indeed a grand milestone for those of you who went with Vista, and is light years ahead of same, if all the reports I’ve read are even half true. However, If you still have XP, seriously consider buying a Mac or a new PC. You’ll have a lot less headaches as far as I can tell, and trust me, I’ve had a few real winning headaches of my own this week.

Now, I love a good party. I like certain celebrations; that’s why I attend things like Barbershop and Sweet Adeline Internationals, BrickCons, and so forth. I like getting together with friends and having a good time. But since I have a Mac, I’ve felt a little left out of this party. I mean, I kind of wanted in on the fun that PC users seemed to be having. I’ve read about the launch parties, and all the other attendant hoopla. And I really felt like I should join in on all the fun and games.

So I decided to celebrate this fantastic milestone by removing Win XP from my Mac.

Here’s the fun and games part: I’m not replacing it with Windows anything.

That’s right--I have finally cut the Windows cord. See, I only installed XP because I thought I’d need it for a few things, like for work. Turns out there’s a Mac version, and our IT person was kind enough to send me the link for it. The other two programs I had it for...I don’t need the one anymore, and the other refused to transfer to the Mac. (When they said one copy to one computer, they weren’t kidding around.)

Gone is the Open Office I installed. If I really want it back, I can get it as it runs on Mac. Also gone is the last Norton product I’m paying for. I didn’t really need it for the Mac side, but did for the Win XP side. When Deena’s Norton subscription runs out, I think I’m going to download Avast or AVG for her, unless she wants to pay for Norton herself. (I have been suspicious that part of her HP’s issues stem from her Norton, however.)

I don’t mind cutting Win XP; it’s been good but is now two versions back and the support for it will dry up soon enough. I also don’t mind losing Norton, mostly because I didn’t mind gaining 100 GB of memory back for the whole Win partition.

Have fun with Windows 7. Me...I’m saving some of what I would have spent on upgrades for Windows, MS Office and Norton and be getting Snow Leopard, iWork and iLife 2010 (if there will be such a thing). I’ll also be doubling my RAM from 2GHz to 4GHz. It’ll be like having a whole new computer, for about the cost of a PC netbook.

And I’ll have enough left over to throw my own party, if I want.

Enough for now.