Monopoly is Multiple computers using the same OS & same serial #.. Vista hasn't produced one yet that I'm aware of. I've heard too many horror stories to think of using Vista right now. I'll wait another year or two. It's bad enough maintaining what I've got right now than to learn/fight with a whole new OS.
I have a 'Volume Version' disc of XP Pro for use on multiple computers using the same serial # like all mine.
Sounds like a cool new set up you have. I had 1 AMD based board and processor and it just didn't perform as good as the Intel based setups I'm using currently.. I don't do a whole lot of gaming, but for performance with my business operations, the Intel's have served me well!
All of my processors I'm using currently are the older Pentium 4's; none are less than 3GB processors and they are still pretty fast when performing multiple functions.
"Trust" probably would have been a better term than "monopoly," but I was tired. Trust, as in, Microsoft tries to force people to use their products and limit their alternatives - which is why the United States has anti-trust laws, and why Microsoft has been up on charges numerous times for potential violations of said laws (I'm too lazy to check if they have ever actually had to pay any fines for it, but my guess offhand would be that they have, just not enough to stop).
I also have a multi-machine licence for XP pro, because I have to use it for my work machine, and since my employer was footing the bill, I made them pay to upgrade my other systems and network along with it. For personal use, I'm much more into Linux, because it takes far less resources to run (or, to put it another way, takes less resources to exist on your machine whether you are actively using it or not), which gives you much more resources to do what you actually wanted to do. (BTW, not trying to convert anyone, before I get flamed for mentioning the dreaded L-Word, just stating why I personally choose to use it)
As far as the P4 versus Core Duo processor argument, the current Dual processors are only a little bit better than the really high end P4s (which it sounds like you have) for day to day stuff, since the first and second gen versions of the dual processors sacrificed throughput capabilities for more raw power (same thing with the current incarnations of DDR2 technology for memory and video card chipsets - they have more power, but have to work harder to deliver that power... this will improve significantly in future versions as companies get better at working with micro-electronics and find better ways to deal with friction on the microscopic level). You wouldn't really notice any MAJOR difference between a high end P4 and a mid-range Dual at this point unless you were doing some really intense graphics work, or playing games that used a lot of high end, demanding functions.
As far as AMD vs. Intel goes, I don't really have any brand loyalty either way. AMD has been more willing to take risks and try new things over the past 6 years or so than Intel has, which is both a good and bad thing - faster innovation, better overall technology at the end of the pipeline, but some costly mistakes along the way (most notably, their processors from 4-5 years ago having a tendency to burn out in about 20 seconds if the heatsink stopped working, because they were forcing too much power through them to keep up with Intel's already established benchmarks because of their time in the industry). The AMD chips these days aren't much different than the Intel ones, other than being slightly cheaper (always a plus to the nerd on a budget).
But the real technology I want to get my hands on is from Sun. They've always made the best chips, it's just that they're only available for high end servers. But they announced a couple of weeks ago that they're going to make a commercial version of their EIGHT core processor (the first version of this chip was only for servers, but they decided just recently to expand on that). The chip has 8 cores, each with 8 threads, for 64 total simultaneous threads. It also has better throughput and energy efficiency than anything else on the market... plus it's less than a thousand bucks right now for the server version. The retail version should be something relatively similar. Would you pay $900 for a 16.8 GhZ processor?
Hmm... that was a long post. Apparently, I like computers.
Topic: THE COMPUTER THREAD (Read 302704 times)
