Your computer

[ChrOniCHiGhz]

Some distros don't require you to remember as many console commands, aka Ubuntu for one. I would probably switch to a mac if I were in your situation. I mainly use Linux for the lack of viruses/spyware (there is SOME viruses, but not anywhere near as much as windows, no where near) and for the ridiculously long uptime I get (this pc, before the power went out a few weeks back, had been running, without restarting or being turned off since February.

edit
wOot post 100 -_-

 

[mrwags]

Zone Alarm Suites has both an award winning firewall and anitvirus and antispyware built in but nothing competes with a hardware firewall but the Zone with the Spysweeper will get ya started.


Mr.Wags

 

[HeadyPete]

Hey everyone.

My opinion is to buy the mac, if you can afford it. Way more stable. If you do any kind of graphic work, audio, video editing etc. you want to be on the mac. Don't worry about the learning curve. More like the unlearning curve. It's laid out so logical and thoughtful you're wonderin what's up. Check out some good mac sites, buy a couple issues of MacAddict and you should be off to a good start.

With that said, I do all that stuff and more on a self built AMD athlon64 dual core 3800 w/ 2 gigs RAM and almost 700 gigs of space on 3 SATA HDDs running XP with all the microsoft updates and it runs reasonably well.

I have had crashes and other issues (my ATI vid card still corrupts audio upon video capture - driver issue still) and have lived by the code, "save lots and often". There are ways to work around things but back in the good old days I had both computers networked together. My ProTools rig ran on a G4 and my PC handled the email and surfing (and crappy but cool Sony ACID...sigh). The Mac was almost flawless and I taxed it with audio post and editing. That computer rig made me a star, so to speak. Ah, company money....

This time, I had to go for the PC cause of price and if you keep it clean, it can work pretty good. Just keep in mind that one day you too will shout, "damn you Gates, damn you all to hell!" Don't install crap, trial software or games or anything else unnecessary - no porn or warez sites - the worst. I run:

AVG Free - I will gladly pay for it come January if it's reasonable. Great AV.
Zone Alarm Free properly configured

And frequently (at least monthly)I run this batch of software:

AVG complete virus scan
Ad-Awaare full scan
Spybot Search & Destroy
Javacool Spyware Blaster

A good app for cleaning unused and unnecessary files off your hard drive(s) is Crap Cleaner. You'd be surprised how much space you could gain. Also, defragment all your drives regularly.

There are a couple other specalty apps but thats the main ones. It takes all these apps to keep your computer clean and protected. Update them always before running them. They are all free for now.

I saw the Pauly shore where he "gets punched out" (my computer's fine) and I think more likely it was your media player crashed on that vid stream and corrupted some Windows files, similar symptoms to a virus. The codecs (files that encode/decode video file types) can crash on an unstable computer or one with not enough memory. Vid is quite processor heavy and codecs don't always all play nice together.

System instability is the bigger threat. My OS has crashed hard twice and once corrupted serious windows files (plus one failed brand new harddrive at the beginning - it happens). My computer expert buddy fixed it, but it was serious. Lately, Firefox reset like a new install and lost most of my bookmarks - corrupted file, some bookmarks were there. Luckily I have backup copies of that sort of stuff (ie. email contacts) on both another hard drive on the computer and on backup DVD.

Last thing I got was a trojan from replying to a fake pm on the WinMX P2P network, couple years ago. Never do that again.

No adware or nothing on this rig (I ran Win98 SE up till 2 years ago) and no viruses.

Lotsa ways to skin the cat and all good advice from everyone so good luck with your journey.

It begins.....

 

[hoyt]

STOP LOOKING UP PORN j/k

if ever i have problems with my pc, which is rare, i just reformat. i loveee reformatting. i do it probably once every 4-6 months. spyware removal programs help. i use 2, xoftspy, and AdAware. defragment your computer once a month. use a firewall. freeing up ram space will benfit you. they have downloadable free ram cleaners if your are in need of some immediate ram space and dont have time to restart. restarting does wonders as well. just make sure you have next to nothing on your startup configuration (in time you will learn which programs are genuine, and which genuine programs you actually need running in your startup configuration. this will help keep ram space to a maximum.). and of course a virus protector. there are only two, McAfee and Norton.

i reccomend download.com for programs you need. they have A LOT of good, free programs. the site is legit as well as huge.

 

[Pedro_De_Pacas]

SuperAntiSpyware, is a really good program that will remove any malicous software or files on you computer..And the best part is that its free..Do a search for it and download the free version..it will find anything anywhere..I just thought id give some advice..PEACE

 

[Pedro_De_Pacas]

BTW, I just bought a Dell XPS 410, and I personally think it is the shittt...Intel Duo Processor..250 gig hard drive...1 gig memory..Of course i got it for gaming and multitasking...

 

[jcsmooth]

BTW, I just bought a Dell XPS 410, and I personally think it is the shittt...Intel Duo Processor..250 gig hard drive...1 gig memory..Of course i got it for gaming and multitasking...

I loved my XPS Gen3 for the first while, but then everything went to hell when things overheated. It's a 3.6 ghz but there was no heat sink, not to mention there was no circulating fan on the inside to draw air in (only passive).
In the end I had to replace everything, but soon found that the copy of Windows that was provided to me would only work on a dell motherboard with dell parts. Funny...do you remember signing such a paper that lists those restrictions? Sorry that I'm so bitter towards Dell...they had done me no wrong until this last pc (and my family have been customers for 10+ years).

Thanks for the tips about reformatting guys. I do do that regularly, and it's the best way to keep things clean and not have to worry about conflicts from various programs you've installed and/or uninstalled.

Sometimes I wonder about spyware and viruses and all those "bugs", and who creates them. Isn't there somewhat of an incentive for the very makers of such programs to CREATE viruses themselves, thus increasing the need/demand for their products which they sell to you?
I'm trying to rationalize why people make viruses....I just want to sit down with them and....throw my food and fists at 'em

JC

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

I bought my own full version of windows XP, now I can reformat my drives if the bugs get bad(scorched earth virus policy), I can also change motherboards as I please.

Its kinda like owning your computers body AND soul.