BEING A COMPUTER enthusiast, I normally scan through the development of computer hardware and computer software. Which brings me to Gerhard Ramsaroop’s column titled, ‘A SHORT GUIDE TO WINDOWS VISTA’ in the Friday July 24, 2009 edition of the Stabroek News, which is the shortest guide to Windows Vista I have ever seen, in that it provides absolutely no information on the programmes (or, software) that Windows Vista uses. Mr Gerhard Ramsaroop feels that Windows Vista (which was released on 30 January 2007) is a “good” operating system, which differs from the rest of the worldwide computer reviews. I have no idea as to why Mr Gerhard Ramsaroop would seek to suggest that Windows Vista is a “good” operating system some two and a half years after its release, especially when WINDOWS 7 has been beta (a general public testing) tested and is slated to be released in November 2009 (five months from now).
Nor am I sure as to why Mr Gerhard Ramsaroop seeks to suggest that we Guyanese should “downgrade” any computer that is Windows Vista to Windows XP when he says: “By no means am I advocating a change to Vista from XP solely for the sake of it.” Overall, I do not believe the changes in Vista are that significant, and I would advise businesses to be cautious about rushing to Vista, especially since it would entail money and possible downtime.
Once XP has already been established at your office, it would be better to downgrade any new (Vista) computers coming in to XP. Of course, computers for downgrade can fall below the hardware requirements for Vista, but must remain sufficient for good performance with XP — at least 512MB RAM, any hard drive greater than 20GB, and any processor over 1.5 GHz”.
Anyone who buys a computer today from a decent manufacturer that has Windows Vista has a right to a FREE COPY OF WINDOWS 7 when this newest operating system is released. However, I do suggest that people and businesses still put off buying a new computer until Christmas 2009 or until WINDOWS 7 has been released.
As well, do not buy ANY NEW Computer with a specification of or better:
4GHz (processor, dual core)
4GB RAM
1GB Graphics
250Gb Hard Drive
DVD RW or blu Ray/DvD RW
17″ TFT Screen
WINDOWS 7
Your best bet would be to contact DELL or your local dealer and ask them to provide the specifications above.
For all computer owners and new buyers, I suggest that you wait until Christmas 2009 before buying a new computer or Windows operating system, as by then, WINDOWS 7 (the newest operating system from Microsoft) would be on the market and not waste time on purchasing Windows Vista.