When I upgrade my PC, I'm going to make sure it's to Mac-friendly hardware, so I can build a Hackintosh.

I'm currently using Linux on my main PC. I also boot into Windows XP on occasion -- but almost everything I do is in Linux now. I'm thinking Windows XP will be my last Microsoft OS -- so no rush getting rid of it!

I've pretty much detoxed myself from Microsoft

My wife might have to upgrade some day to Windows 7 (or a successor), but I don't have much of a need for Windows.

Matthew

I have an Intel motherboard (965OT), 6600 2.4 GHz Core2Duo processor, 4 GB RAM, nVidia 9500GT graphics card with 1 GB, Sound Blaster X-FI sound card, dual-layer DVD burner, 24" widescreen LCD monitor (a very cheap one though), and a solid, heavy, basic PS/2 keyboard I bought in 1999. My hard drives are pretty tiny by today's standards -- 80 GB and 160 GB -- but I archive unused stuff to DVD. Anything more than 80 GB and you really end up with a cluttered hard drive if you actually use it.

I also have a very nice power supply -- a bit expensive, but it gives reliable power AND it saves a bit of electricity! The "payoff period" (when I save enough electricity to pay for the power supply) might be 5 years though...Then again, it will probably last 5 years. I'll probably upgrade the rest of my hardware several times between now and then.

For those who might be aghast at my apparent un-frugality when it comes to my PC -- it's my work machine. I work at home as a web developer. I can't use a crappy PC to do programming and audio editing. Besides, a PC like mine could be had for $650 or so.

We are going cheap on our Internet though -- $45 a month for 512 Kbps up and down speed. To compare, DSL is usually AT LEAST 1.5 Mbps (3 times faster) and cable is often 3, 6, 9 or even 12 Mbps.

We live in a rural area, so we can't get cable or DSL.

We could pay $10/month more for TWICE the speed -- but we don't, to be frugal.

Matthew

For whatever it's worth (Im definitely not a comp. nerd), I have a Toshiba SatelliteA665 with Windows 7.

I had a little acer aspire netbook that was great until I dropped it and broke the screen.  It still works and I can plug it into my monitor.  Someday the price of screens will drop I think.

Right now I use a little computer I built myself for $225.  It's an Athlon dual core and it does what I need it to do.

Occasionally skype will crash it, but other than that it's everything I want and need.

It's weird.  I was a IBM mainframe programmer for 20 years for a very large company (Fortune 25) and a few smaller ones, and never once, in my entire career, did any of the company's dozen or mainframes ever crash.  I get BSoDs about once a month, down from once or so a day, after getting my Vista machine.  Vista SP2 improved things but it's still a rip-off.  I am definitively not upgrading to Windows 7, even if Microsoft gave me a free copy!

In fact I'm using XP right now.  But yes, I can't stand microsoft, I used linux for over a year but I can't get it to work with certain applications, so I finally was able to get XP installed.

If you've moved on to Vista, might as well upgrade to Windows 7. In my opinion, it's better than Vista.

It's better to stick with Windows XP for now, or install Linux if you're technically inclined.

In summary, here is the list, from best to worst:

Linux
Windows XP
Windows 7
Mac OS
Windows 2000
DOS
Windows 98
Windows Vista
Windows ME

Those last 4 are a bit more arbitrary -- but you get the idea :)

I was always thankful I skipped ME myself. Troubleshooting it for others was enough trouble.

I tend to think despite the initial investment still being higher than a desktop, it may be best to get laptops nowadays for energy efficiency purposes.