Ouch... my wallet.

I guess it's about time. My desktop is nearing 7 years old, and my ginormous laptop is about 4-5 years old. One of my biggest hurdles in getting brand new machines at retail was Vista. My experience with Vista on my parents and siblings computers have not been favorable. Nothing worked with it, and those seemingly endless nag screens were annoying and counter-productive. I asked co-workers about their experiences with Vista. Then I scoured the net for reviews on the upcoming Windows 7, such as this one. After much reading, I decided to go with a mobile workstation with "Genuine Windows Vista® Business with downgrade to Windows® XP Professional Custom Installed".

(Screen simulated for awesomeness.)

Microsoft hasn't given me any reason to abandon XP yet, and I think that is sad, especially for someone who likes to enjoy the latest tech. I prefer productivity and stability over gay animated desktops, just like I prefer good stories in movies as opposed to all-visual popcorn flicks. I think it's funny that they had to include an XP downgrade for consumers like me. Based on what I've been hearing, Microsoft is trying to force us to upgrade, slowly but surely. How? By having the new OS hog more computer resources, therefore requiring everyone to buy more powerful computers and devices, and by discontinuing drivers and support for old devices. I have an old B&W HP Deskjet printer at home that works just fine, but it doesn't have support from Vista. It's like Microsoft is making us send our old, but physically healthy printers, to retirement homes. Now that's just cruel, Microsoft.