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Five Things to Consider Before Buying a Computer 6
EXTRAS (SOFTWARE)
Lastly, don't forget about software for your new computer. Generally, the best practice is to get as little as you can installed by the manufacturer and buy (or download) exactly what you need yourself. The reality is, most of the software that's preinstalled on new computers is unnecessary and actually slows down your computer considerably so we're particularly big fans Sony's "fresh start" or Dell's "no software preinstalled" options, which will provide new PCs with only the operating system installed. You'll miss out on the free three-month trials and such, but any software that's worth getting for free for three months is worth paying for in the end when you download or install it yourself.
The one thing that might be worth getting is security software. You'll need anti-virus and firewall software on any Windows PC anyway and most manufacturers offer steep discounts on commercial security suites. Otherwise, make sure to keep that PC as clean as possible.
Microsoft Office is a great product and one of the most popular pieces of software people add to their computers. However if you can save yourself the cash it's well worth it. If you don't have much of a need for Power Point or Excel you can save yourself a boat load of cash by skipping it and downloading a free alternative like Open Office or Abiword. But, if you're the type who brings your work home with you or have occasional school projects that require some of Word's sister programs there's no avoiding this ubiquitous productivity suite. But with your employer or school first as you might be able to get Office with a corporate or student discount and save yourself up to $300. If you're a Mac user, don't overlook the cheap (by comparison) iWork suite, which offers comparable tools to Microsoft's Office Suite at a fraction of the price.
That doesn't mean your computer is ready to go out the box (though if you went with Linux or OS X you're much closer to fully operational than if you picked Windows). Those of you who choose a Mac also get iLife, a full suite of software that includes iPhoto for managing and editing photos, iMovie for editing videos, iWeb for creating simple (but attractive) Web pages, iDVD for creating DVDs complete with menus, and GarageBand (one of these five doesn't belong) that will allow you to unleash your inner musical genius. And, of course, you get iTunes installed by default, a necessary download on a Windows PC.
To get those same capabilities on Windows PC would cost you a fortune if you were to go with purely commercial software. Adobe and Sony offer packages like Photoshop, Acid, and Vegas for editing photos, music, and video respectively. Unless you're a professional, you can probably replace these for free options like Picassa and Audacity for picture and audio editing. Getting a free quality video editor for Windows is much tougher. XP and Vista come with Movie Maker installed, which should suffice for the most basic tasks, but if you plan on doing anything more advanced than trimming down home movies and adding a soundtrack, your best bet is to pick up a commercial package like Magix Movie Maker. Don't forget to check out our top 25 downloads article below to trick out your PC for free with all the software you could need.
Lastly, don't forget about software for your new computer. Generally, the best practice is to get as little as you can installed by the manufacturer and buy (or download) exactly what you need yourself. The reality is, most of the software that's preinstalled on new computers is unnecessary and actually slows down your computer considerably so we're particularly big fans Sony's "fresh start" or Dell's "no software preinstalled" options, which will provide new PCs with only the operating system installed. You'll miss out on the free three-month trials and such, but any software that's worth getting for free for three months is worth paying for in the end when you download or install it yourself.
The one thing that might be worth getting is security software. You'll need anti-virus and firewall software on any Windows PC anyway and most manufacturers offer steep discounts on commercial security suites. Otherwise, make sure to keep that PC as clean as possible.
Microsoft Office is a great product and one of the most popular pieces of software people add to their computers. However if you can save yourself the cash it's well worth it. If you don't have much of a need for Power Point or Excel you can save yourself a boat load of cash by skipping it and downloading a free alternative like Open Office or Abiword. But, if you're the type who brings your work home with you or have occasional school projects that require some of Word's sister programs there's no avoiding this ubiquitous productivity suite. But with your employer or school first as you might be able to get Office with a corporate or student discount and save yourself up to $300. If you're a Mac user, don't overlook the cheap (by comparison) iWork suite, which offers comparable tools to Microsoft's Office Suite at a fraction of the price.
That doesn't mean your computer is ready to go out the box (though if you went with Linux or OS X you're much closer to fully operational than if you picked Windows). Those of you who choose a Mac also get iLife, a full suite of software that includes iPhoto for managing and editing photos, iMovie for editing videos, iWeb for creating simple (but attractive) Web pages, iDVD for creating DVDs complete with menus, and GarageBand (one of these five doesn't belong) that will allow you to unleash your inner musical genius. And, of course, you get iTunes installed by default, a necessary download on a Windows PC.
To get those same capabilities on Windows PC would cost you a fortune if you were to go with purely commercial software. Adobe and Sony offer packages like Photoshop, Acid, and Vegas for editing photos, music, and video respectively. Unless you're a professional, you can probably replace these for free options like Picassa and Audacity for picture and audio editing. Getting a free quality video editor for Windows is much tougher. XP and Vista come with Movie Maker installed, which should suffice for the most basic tasks, but if you plan on doing anything more advanced than trimming down home movies and adding a soundtrack, your best bet is to pick up a commercial package like Magix Movie Maker. Don't forget to check out our top 25 downloads article below to trick out your PC for free with all the software you could need.
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Comments
6
Subscribe to commentsChrisOct 1st 2008 11:32PM
A bit of misinformation in this article, which is also heavily Apple biased. Vista isn't really as slow/bloated or as much of a security nightmare than portrayed to be - it's usually the computer manufacturers who load tons of extra software on their systems which slow them down. Apple machines also don't "excel at creative tasks" anymore than computers from other brands - they all use the same hardware; they just have different software. AMD processors may not all be as fast as their Intel counterparts, but they certainly are fast enough to run an operating system and programs without "mysterious freeze-ups". Intel's newest 45nm chips are also not distinguished just by the first number - for laptops, any processor beginning with P is new, and there are some 45nm processors starting with the number 8. (Not all of these 45nm processors are the same, but this article makes them out to be this way) Windows also comes with some of the creative programs raved about on the Mac OS, and many free alternatives can be found online. Since iLife 08, Apple has dumbed down iMovie and made it so basic that users complained enough to offer the previous '06 iMovie version for those who had bought the '08. Movie Maker hasn't lost any of it's functionality and still has basic elements like the timeline. And no, iTunes is not a necessary download on a "PC", because not only are some people smart enough to shop for iPod alternatives, iTunes is actually bloated and slow, and requires 4 memory and CPU hogging services to keep it running.
MatthewOct 2nd 2008 8:14PM
Maybe someone is biased, but it is not this article, which offers a lot of helpful advice for anyone considering a computer.
Vista isn't really as slow/bloated or as much of a security nightmare than portrayed to be - it's usually the computer manufacturers who load tons of extra software on their systems which slow them down.
This doesn't change the fact that it runs slow. It's not easy to reinstall Windows all and remove all the junk it for the average user. Their task is made harder by the fact that many OEMs refuse to give reinstallation media away.
You can fill OS X up to the brim with apps and it won't take a performance hit. It's because of poor architectural decisions in Windows which relate to how application data is encapsulated. Registry, DLLs. Both bad ideas, both cause problems, both non existent on OS X and other UNIX like systems
Making excuses for Microsoft and passing the buck onto the OEMs doesn't change the fact that the point the article made was correct.
DorothyOct 14th 2008 8:06PM
I kept waiting for this article to address the 64-bit issue. I helped my senior citizen mother buy a computer at a big box store & thought we'd done a pretty good job until we got home and realized that it was a 64 bit system and not all software is compatible with it. In the end, it seems to be working ok for her, but it certainly created headaches for us. I'm told it will soon be the "standard," but for now, be a bit wary!
Mike PetruzziNov 18th 2008 9:00PM
64 Bit Ultimate here and I have had 0 issues. What the article neglected to point out is that having 4 gig of ram is a waste of money unless your running 64 bit since a 32 bit operating system will not see the entire 4 gig do to memory addressing limitations. While technically the 32 bit O.S. should be able to handle that much allocation, it cannot since addresses are taken up by the on board memory of discreet video and audio subsystems.
dnelson50Nov 18th 2008 1:49PM
One important bit of information left out of this article is VMware Fusion 2 software. This allows you to run most Windows programs and peripherals on a Mac as a virtual platform. You can copy all your files and applications from your PC and bring them over to your new Mac and run them in a better and more stable environment.
Cam42Dec 24th 2008 3:53PM
A little Misinformation here...
OpenOffice.org has a full, MS office compatible office suite.