Expert: Bobbert - 1/31/2007

Question
Hello Friend,

I have a question for you.

My wife and I bought our computer/media center from Gateway in early 1998, its OS is WIN98 1st version, 386 Pentium II Celeron with 6gig HD.

It was top of the line when we bought it for approx. $2300.00 dollars (TV/Monitor included with a lifetime service package).

As you can imagine it is getting nigh on impossible to find software and peripherals that run on a 1st Version WIN98 OS.

So we are in the market to replace it.

We have talked to Gateway and interesting enough it appears it will cost us approx. $2300.00 to replace it, even though the processor, memory and software is lightyears more advanced.

Our question is threefold and is based upon what is our best advantage at this stage:

1)   Should we just get a new system from Gateway (or some other vendor)?
2)   Should we have on made from the ground up by a trusted local company?
3)   Should we move to a MAC OS and forget the Windows OS altogether?
4)   What about LINUX, is this something to consider, and can we get software that runs on a LINUX OS?

We are not technophobes, nor technophiles, we just want something that will run, be easy to use (and not buggy like the WIN98), and will allow us to write letters, email, watch movies, play music and access to the net.

I know that this is a pretty large question not knowing our precise needs, but we are looking for general input.

Thanks

Blanchjoe


Answer
Well, I would say that $2300 for a replacement system for what you want, given that we're in 2007, is flat out outrageously expensive. The computer Dell advertises for $399 (or whatever their current gimmick is) would probably suit you, but would offer almost no upgradability.

Custom building at a local shop usually costs a lot more than it should, custom building it yourself would save you the most money in terms of performance/price ratios, and isn't all that hard to do.

Transitioning to Apple's OS X requires purchase of an Apple computer, as currently it violates the DMCA laws to run OS X on any other x86 hardware, not to mention that you have to pirate the OS and basically rig it together to run on non-Apple hardware, a new Apple will run you between $1100 and over $9000 (depending on what you choose to buy, most of the cost for the more expensive systems is buying RAM and monitors, like the $2000 30" Cinema HD display).

Linux is a free OS, more closely related to OS X than Windows, however a different fork from UNIX (OS X was designed from UNIX and BSD, Linux was designed from UNIX and is entirely open source, meaning its free, and anyone can contribute to it)

To get an idea of how many options there are for Linux OS', you could look at www.distrowatch.com

Some OS' I wouldn't suggest for the basic use you've described would be Gentoo Linux, CentOS, Sun Solaris 10, DamnSmallLinux, Puppy Linux, ArchLinux, anything in a language you don't speak, and raw Debian (Debian based is another story, but Debian itself hasn't had a new release for about 2 years, and the current release comes on something like 11 CD's, most of which is to carry extra software packages).

Some OS' you might consider in the Linux family of OS' would be Ubuntu Linux, Kubuntu Linux, Xubuntu Linux (they're all roughly the same, but come with different DE's (Ubuntu is GNOME, Kubuntu is KDE, and Xubuntu is XFCE)), openSuSE, and probably Fedora

some Linux based OS' that I would suggest if you want some end user support (these however do cost money)
Linspire OS from Linspire Inc
Xandros OS from Xandros Corp
SuSE Enterprise Linux 10 from Novell (despite the "big official name" it only costs around $49.95 depending on what liscense you buy)


Xandros is unique in that it features XFM, the Xandros File Manager, which allows it to read and write to NTFS (the NT File System, used by Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista, most Linux OS' can't directly write to NTFS while Xandros OS can, it however costs around $79.95 (roughly the cost of Windows XP Home SP1a OEM))

Linux software compatability is very broad, unless you want Direct3D games, however most Linux installs "out of the box" will do everything you've described without you ever having to install any software, as most of them feature OpenOffice 2.0 (www.openoffice.org (its free for Windows too)) and Mozilla Firefox (www.getfirefox.com) is usually included

for watching movies, VLC is usually included, along with amoroK (somewhat similar to iTunes) or XMMS (very similar to Winamp) for music, however you may need to download codecs

The issue with Linux comes when a problem arises, you have to be willing to work it out yourself instead of having a "Windows Wizard" fix it for you, or just calling Microsoft (or Dell, or some other OEM builder) which can sometimes be nice (when its something simple) or can sometimes be a total pain (when its something complex) however Linux is usually less problem prone than Windows, once its setup right (most all of the OS' i have suggested to you are designed to be very user friendly).

While Linux offers all of these great advantages, its achiles heel (Aside from the lack of formal user support) is the lack of Direct3D support, Wine can emulate Windows applications like Internet Explorer or MS Word (not that you'd really ever want either of those once you've experienced the stability of non-Microsoft applications) it can't however emulate Direct3D games such as Half-Life 2

older Direct3D games will usually run alright, such as StarCraft or WarCraft III, however newer titles such as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Half-Life 2, or FEAR will hardly run at all through emulation...

there are a few OpenGL (OpenGL is another 3D graphics API, which could be argued to predate Direct3D, however Direct3D (also called DirectX, Direct3D isn't exactly DirectX, its part of DirectX (which also includes DirectPlay, DirectSound, DirectMusic, and DirectDraw)) is considered the primary API for developing games)

the modern OpenGL titles that Linux (and OS X in most cases) will support are:

Unreal Tournament '99, 2003, and 2004
Quake I, II, III, and IV
Doom I, II, and III
Neverwinter Nights 1 (however Neverwinter Nights 2 is DirectX 9.0c only)
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (which is also a free game, multiplayer only though)

Star Wars Battlefront also claims Macintosh support, the following might provide an interesting read about gaming on OS X:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_gaming

dual booting Windows XP and OS X is entirely legal, on an Apple

For an Apple system capable of gaming, you might look at this:
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/6694002/wo/qA6p9...

the 17" version would also work, however the 20" monitor will likely improve the user experience

A comparable system from Dell:
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsdt_410?c=us&cs=19&l=...

However I'd suggest upgrading the graphics from the standard 7300 to a Radeon X1600 or GeForce 7600 (or better)
Also ensure its coming with at least 1GB of RAM and other features you want

Custom building would probably cost around $1100 to $1200, due to the amount of links it'd take (roughly 12) I won't go off listing parts unless you want to get more into custom building, however
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/11/20/how_to_build_part_1/
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/12/04/choosing-the-right-vender/
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/12/14/how-to-build-a-pc-part-3/
the above should provide some more background on custom building, for parts purchasing i'd suggest www.newegg.com and www.geeks.com, www.zipzoomfly.com occasionally has good deals, but Newegg's consistently low prices and bias towards higher quality products, and the availability of "odd" parts from Geeks is what makes me suggest them above other online vendors.

One thing I'd like to say is that Windows Vista is not an OS I would personally suggest, due to its DRM restrictions, which drastically limit the user experience unless you wanna purchase the hardware microsoft thinks you should own, and run your computer the way microsoft thinks you should, and watch the movies microsoft thinks you should be allowed to, and listen to the music microsoft is ok with you listening to, personally, forget that

dual booting OS X and Windows XP would provide a fairly balanced solution, however the iMac series has at least two problems I could think of

the first:
usually the graphics performance is going to be behind PC's, not older technology, but the Radeon X1600 is a midrange product, not a top range product, i'm sure the X1900 series boards ship with the Mac Pro, but those start at $2499

the second:
on the G5 series iMacs the CD drive is prone to "eat" the discs, this may have changed on the Intel series iMac, however if it hasn't, an external USB drive runs about $50 to $60 and wouldn't be a bad idea in that case

-bob