Getting past the O.S. hype - choices beyond who is yelling the loudest.

Joel Spolsky wrote...

"...Last week they[Microsoft] send out a round of expensive laptops with Vista preinstalled. These are not loans, by the way: they're completely free laptops ("yours to keep!")."

Joel's blog is great - always on-point and interesting. This "Bribing Bloggers" article was inspired.

I can't say I would have said "no" to a new, hot laptop - but nobody asked. Anyway, this is just the beginning of what Microsoft is going to do: free laptops to get some positive blog posts, just to give us a taste of what is to come.

My point - here it comes...the avalanche of Windows Vista hype outside of the geek world is going to invade every nook and cranny of our lives. Just wait - you will not be able to turn on a television, drive past a road sign or lift up the morning paper without a Microsoft ad shouting at you: "Vista is lemony fresh and makes its own gravy!" The ad execs are in for a good first quarter. We are going to be reminded over and over again that Microsoft is the richest company on the planet and they have the ability to change our lives, whether we like it or not.

Buy Vista and put it on your old hardware and watch it crawl - or get a zippy new PC with gobs of memory and a hot video processor and watch the new Windows, well, run marginally faster that the old Windows.

Don't buy into it.

You have options - Linux, Macintosh, or stick with XP.

XP, even after six years, has all the pieces to make it semi-secure. As we have seen with Microsoft Windows upgrades in the past, it takes about four to five years for the public to cycle from one version to another.

Ahhhhh... thinking about blowing some cash on a new PC anyway. Once you go Mac... They are just as fast, darn stable and grandma can understand how to use it.

Or go Linux - you have never seen your old hardware work so well.

Whatever you do, put your fingers in your ears, close your eyes and start yelling "LA, LA, I'M NOT LISTENING, LA, LA." , because you will not be able to turn a corner and without being reminded that there is something out there better for you and you would not want to miss it, now would you? After all, Windows will change your life, again, and again, and again, till they can't suck any more money out of that puppy.