The Island Journal

It has been some time since I posted and I will post more again soon when I make my DC trip, but for the time being, I just wanted to let my faithful readers... um, reader... know that I'm still alive and I LOVE my new computer!

I built a Dual Core 3.5 Ghz system with 4 gigs of ram, 150 Gb hard driver, and installed Windows XP x64. Why did I not go with 64 bit Ubuntu? As much as I love that OS, Linux does not have the support I need for Photoshop (just got CS 4) and various audio editing programs I want to use and I don't feel I should really need to learn new programs when the one's I've put extensive time into learning are doing exactly what I want them to do.

I considered installing the beta for Windows 7 (AKA Blackcomb or Vienna) x 64 on the system, but it will go inactive before the full release date around Christmas so I figured, I'll grab it when it's released. From the reviews I've been reading, Windows 7 is a vast improvement over Vista. The shell is more similar, but closer to Windows than OS X and the system is a bit more configurable. I also understand, like many of their 64 bit operating systems, they'll be basing it on Windows Server which increases the stability. I've read rumors that they will only be offering Windows 7 in 64 bit and dropping 32 all together. If that's the case, many older systems are going to be hard pressed for support. Looks like I need to start building my parents a new one.

I have been considering installing the dreaded Vista. Why? Well, I have been reading tech blogs and reviews doing the back and forth between XP and Vista almost since Vista came out. Recently, more people have been saying that Vista is more stable in image editing programs and has more driver support... we'll see.

In a nut shell, I'm happy with the hardware, now I need to find a happy medium with the software.