Go ahead and buy a Mac.
Spend your money.
Windows needs maintenance and updates to work properly.
If you cant do it...or know someone who can you will have trouble.
I have two puters the kids use I reformat every 6 months or so.
Too cheap to buy antivirus for 3 puters.
Windos for workgroups 3.1 ?
Rember all those darn floppies ?
Wow if I could have reformatted my x I would still be married !

 

Try here:

http://system76.com/

They run Ubuntu Linux, which is what I run.

http://www.ubuntu.com/

It fulfills all of your requirements and is completely free.

 

Avast is free.

 

I started with Dos in early 80's. finally got windows 3.11. The best Bill has done to date

 

MS Wife 2.x wasn't any better, and the risk of viruses was just too scary.

Macintosh Wife 1.x is too rich and snobby for my blood.

Linux Wife 1.x (and all of it's distros) Wouldn't do anything without unless you programmed it yourself.

Hottie 1.xxx is dumber than my first Ti calculator, and as virus ridden as Wife 2.x (shareware).

Bachelor v. 3.0 is still chuggin' along just fine.

 

With a windows PC you MUST run antivirus and spyware programs regularly. Especially if you have kids on the PC or you go to those "Other" websites. Kids pick up viruses like a dog picks up fleas so you really need checkers then. I run multiple checks every week at least and if My kids have been on the sytem, more often. I also setup some programs to do a sweep at night.

I run Norton, which as they expand functionallity has made my PC slow down more every time I get an upgrade. But then it does have some decent virus checking, firewall and recovery programs. One problem with Norton I have seen is that some viruses actually target Norton and disable it thus requiring reloads and or calling support. I have had Norton disabled a few times this year, but most of the time it is easy to restart.

Also More than half the time when I do a web renewal or major revison update, the Norton script does not work properly and I wind up having to hand configfure it. I am tempted to use some other antivirus because of this.

I use Lavasoftware Adaware to check for spy ware. I also run Spybot and Winpatrol and Spywareblaster. These all take their chunk of cpu time so they will slow things down a tiny bit. But they have cut down the amount of spyware and viruses my PC picks up whenever my kids get online at gamesites. each of these programs seems to do different things and have strengths and weaknesses, so I run them kind of like overlapping layers of armor. These are all freeware.

Every once in awhile you should do a disk cleanup(look under Accessories, System Tools) and erase temporary web files( look under Tools). These slow things down a lot over time. And once in awhile you sohould do a disk defrag(system Tools).

The Mac is less prone to viruses because none of the most prolific virus writers want to waste time on a niche market. They want the billions of PCs in the world running their viruses, not the thousands of Macs. But I hear that there are some popping up on MACs. But still Macs are less prone to viruses.

Linux is a decent operating system with the same lack of viruses as a mac for similar reasons. There are PCs sold running Linux, or you can get Linux for any PC. Linux is available free or for sale depending on which flavor you buy, and that can be a problem. There are several versions of Linux and they may or may not be compatible. Also programs for common stuff may or may not run on Linux. Things like Microsoft Office are not as readilly available on Linux. Many of the programs to replace things like office are freeware or shareware or off brand. Some are good, some are awful and support is spotty.

PCs still offer the widest selection of machines and programs, but like the living world, viruses attack the most popular systems. So a Mac or Linux may protect you from a lot of things, assuming that they are adequate to your needs.

Good Luck,

Jim Henderson

 

True but I am also lazy .
My x is alot like a Mac.
She cost me alot and she couldnt do much.

 

I love it man lol.

 

I bought this old Pentium-3 new years ago and it keeps chugging along without a failure yet. Based on it's performance, I'll be buying another windows PC if this one ever decides to give it up. My McAfee protection is provided by my service provider and must be working since no problems ever.

 

I'll second the motion of Mil1ion and Johntucker09......Get a Mac.....Personally, I've never heard of the "Panther" or the "Tiger" op systems going bad....Got my first one in March 2005....No problems ever.

(Note to PC users......I had just few problems, but I think Windows98 was a great system....WindowsME sucked)........

Get a Mac if you can......No reason why you couldn't get a reconditioned system if price is an issue, but the price differences on comparable systems isn't THAT great.....

I missed some of my gaming (from Windows), but they have cross-decking software you can install if you want to run some Windows stuff (games, etc.)....

Steve

 

The new Mac's are pretty much just like a PC now since they have Intel processors. You can run Windows XP on them now. The irony is it runs Windows XP faster than Mac O/S.

Personally I will never use a Mac. I like to be able to upgrade my system easily and parts are inexpensive. If I want a faster DVD drive, I just got down to the local computer store and spend like $50.

I've been on the internet since 1996 and have only got 1 virus in 10 years. I just downloaded a little utility on the net to kill it. A computer is just like a car, do basic maintenance and it will last a long time.

 

Very well put 51 Dueller

 

Thanks, I'll look into that. The computer is working at this moment so it has been spared from the axe.. For now....