Consumer Updates

Sat, Aug 4, 2007

Because of backorders, and frustrating customer service, I had to relinquish the potential Dell Ubuntu notebook in favor of a Gateway with the dreaded Vista pre-installed. (Note to Mac Users: I have .5 GHZ less processor speed [bus issues are not relevant, I don’t think], twice as much memory, and 40GB more hard drive space for $1100 less than the equivalent MacBook–how is this even possible?)

Our moving company made yesterday one of the most unpleasant days of my life, as we had to take turns staking out the visitors’ parking lot so that the behemoth trailer would have room. It was supposed to have been delivered on Tuesday, then yesterday morning. It arrived at 5:30 PM. I would calculate the heat index at 135° by then.

We had much-welcomed help from friends at Lafayette, however, which enabled us to finish unloading in around three hours.

In less than an hour of using Vista, I’ve already had the system essentially crash after I tried to uninstall some crapware (which, to Gateway’s benefit, I have to say is modest compared to some of the horrors I’ve seen).