Need a new PC. Why get Vista? Why buy new? And more stupid questions.

[policywonk]

Good morning techy peoples

I kind of need a new PC, but would really like to keep the budget right down (don't need a new monitor or any add-ons). When I say 'down', I'm talking £300 or less. I only ever use Word and Explorer, because I am dull like that - no need to play games or anything.

I read a recent thread about this and someone was saying YOU MUST GET VISTA - why? Will I not be able to open Vista files in XP? What sort of processor should I get?

Is it OK to buy second-hand computers on eBay, or will I be cursing? What should I look for?

Please help me, I am stupid.

Lyra - Safari is not a complete piece of software though. you can't use a lot of sites with it because it doesn't obey the rules that browsers are supposed to obey (ok, IE and Firefox break some of them, but Safari hardly bothers to give them a nod). I would hate to count the hours we've wasted trying to make websites work in the blasted thing. Lots of webmasters haven't bothered - you can't use gmail with it can you? It was irresponsible and greedy of mac to release it imo. microsoft would have been crucified if they had released such a substandard piece of software. nice mac-style features or no nice mac-style features.

Tissy, I also have a Macbook, a beautiful white one. Far superior to my previous laptop, a Sony Vaio running Windows XP.

Hasta La Vista, Mellowma.....

I spit on Macs. I bought a G4 about 8 years ago when I first went freelance - spent a bloody fortune on it, as well as having to sell my first-born to buy Quark. Anyway, the poncey machine had a complete nervous breakdown about two weeks (literally) after the one-poxy-year warranty expired. When I rang up Apple to complain/cry the response was basically 'well, it's, like, a year old. Surely you'd be upgrading soon anyway?'

I swore then and there never to buy another bloody Mac.

you can use gmail with Safari....

and if you get yer mac from John Lewis (at the same price that Apple would flog it for) you get a TWO year warranty

sorry, I must be getting gmail confused with one of the other google apps.

Lots of bits of lots of sites don't work though, because half of the javascript handler is missing in Safari. and it is still a beta.

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