Life After
Vista
!IHNeHNs
Ed Word
Please send feedback
and plain M&Ms to
[email protected].
N
ow that Vista has fi nally shipped, it’s time to
refl ect on the last three years. In the middle
of 2003, I began my preparations to cover Vista
(back then, it was called Longhorn). First, I decided
to familiarize myself with the competition: Linux
and OS X. I spent 18 months immersed in them,
which gave me a much better understanding of
the strengths and weaknesses of the three major
operating systems. Then, after a brief interlude back
to Windows XP, I turned my attention to Vista.
During the last nine months, I’ve spent a ton of
time testing, using, and writing about Vista. For testing
and review purposes, I’ve run Vista on most of my
rigs for the last half of 2006. Now that I’m wrapping
up our fi rst wave of Vista coverage, I’m not sure what
to do next. If you read my Vista review in last month’s
issue or this month’s “10 Reasons You Don’t Need
Vista Today” (page 34), you know I’m not particularly
impressed with the fl edgling OS. I’m sure that at some
point in the not-too-distant future I’ll install Vista—in
order to play games and work on stories for the mag,
if nothing else. I just don’t need it right now.
But Linux is a different story. Since the time I
regularly used Linux, a new power has risen: Ubuntu.
Ubuntu’s polished interface, easy-to-use applications,
and Windows-switcher-friendly community have helped
thousands of people learn Linux, and I want to give itanother try. I expect the entire experience to be much
easier than before, as three years is an eternity in the
Linux world. And, just like last time, I’ll blog about the
reality of switching to Linux at Maximumpc.com.
So, what’s your next OS move? Let me know,
either by voting in our forum poll ( http://tinyurl.com/
y3lndr ) or by emailing me at [email protected].CH-CH-CH-CHANGES
It gives me great pleasure to announce a few changes
at Maximum PC. First, I want to welcome two new
members to the Maximum PC family—associate
editor Dave Murphy and managing editor Tom
Edwards. Dave will be covering several of our
hardcore beats—cooling, cases, and storage, among
others—while Tom has inherited the thankless (but
ever so vital) task of keeping the rest of the staff in
line and on schedule. I’d also like to congratulate
Katherine Stevenson on her much-deserved
promotion to senior editor. In addition to covering her
tech beats, she’ll be planning and editing the features
in the magazine.
Congrats Katherine and welcome Dave and Tom!Features
MAXIMUMPC 02/
Lean
24 Machine
Build your own $1,500 PC with
our easy-to-follow how-to!34
Vista
10 reasons you
don’t need Vista today.34
Vista
3434Vista
38
Quad FX
Will AMD’s
new quad core
beat Intel?10 reasons you
don’t need Vista today.don’t need Vista today.Quad FX
Will AMD’sdon’t need Vista today.
Quad FX
44
Browsers
Two new browsers—
which is right for you?FEBRUARY 2007 MAXIMUMPC