My Dell laptop is a god dog. I have had it for a couple of years courtesy Biola University and it is running slower and slower and slowwweeerrr. Right now, for example, to start up my laptop, log in, bring up email and a browser takes approximately 10 minutes. To open an email attachment in Word takes two or three minutes. When I try to play music or a video and open a new application, the media begins stuttering.
I have worked with the anti-spy anti-ad anti-virus software as well as the registry to try and figure out what is going on, but to no avail. I am sure if I really wanted to spend the time, I could get it fixed. But I don’t want to spend the time, I just want it to work. I have heard from several sources that this is “normal” for Windows (especially heavy users like myself) and that the best solution is to reinstall XP from scratch.
I teach a class here at Biola with all my senior information systems students in it. I told them about my problem and several of them immediately told me that I should switch to a Mac. Then I noticed something: of the seven students in the class, five of them use Macs. The two Windows users were indifferent about it.
Now that Apple has put Intel processors in the Mac, this is a viable option for me. I need Windows for three functions: 1) Outlook email/calendar/task management and PDA sync, 2) Microsoft Access (I teach a class where we use this), and 3) my consulting work. Now, with the Intel Mac, I can use “Bootcamp” or “Parallels” to run these Windows programs on the Mac to solve #2 and #3. But what about #1? I leave my email up all the time and sync with my PDA constantly, so running Outlook on the Mac makes no sense. Again, back to my students. Their recommendation: switch to Gmail. So, I have begun researching Gmail and it seems that I could conceivably ditch Outlook for Gmail and use a third party software to sync with my PDA.
Will I do it? I don’t know yet. I will probably begin the GMail transition after school lets out next week so I can get rid of Outlook anyways. Who knows, that may solve some of my performance problems right there! The switch to the Mac make take some time, especially with my consulting work. And as a business professor, I will always have to be conversant in the Windows world. I’ll update this blog with my decisions and progress over the next couple months.
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