Expert: Bobbert - 11/23/2008

Question
Hi

Ihave a dell xps m1330 & am considering dumping it for an Apple.

The reason is that vista has been reinstalled x 3, runs in a corrupt form for weeks on end because I don't have the time to mess with it and no assurance it will not immediately re-corrupt, and not all due to 3rd party software installs.

Essentially I know how to fix the corruption - reimage the drive - but corruption hits from just pressing a key if the boot sequence is not complete.

All of these issues never happened on XP systems I've owned.

I don't have the time for reinstalling the system and programs every 2 weeks & trying to remember to save my browser favorites, reinstall anything I ever added....

What do you suggest?  Is there a robust version of vista better than my home premium that does not corrupt?  For you techy folks this is probaly a game for me it is a time consuming PIA.

Would I be better off with a Mac?

Can I get xp to install - what is the best solution.

Answer
I would suggest Windows XP if you've used it and prefer it, if you haven't installed Vista SP1, you may wish to try that as well. Can you elaborate more on "corrupt" though? (It may be a simple issue to fix, as reformatting is quite extreme for most software problems, and reimaging is kind of the lazy, knee-jerk reaction of IT operators on large distributed networks).

As far as the switch to Apple OS and Apple hardware, you may prefer it, however it has its own problems (which I won't detail, just know that every piece of software has strengths and weaknesses, the trick is finding, respectively, which ones are important to you and which ones you can live with), if you'd prefer the switch, its your choice.

Honestly this is a question of personal preference, so I can't really give you a yes or no answer, go with what you'd prefer to have, if Windows Vista isn't doing it for you, try Windows XP, or perhaps an open-source or otherwise alternative OS (PC-BSD, OpenSolaris, or Ubuntu, to name a few), or perhaps the OS X route is right for you, try out a few options, see which you like.

-bob