#4 Windows 7

Well, it works! Windows 7 on a 5 year old Tablet PC and it actually works well - much better than XP tablet edition seemed to, which is odd, given that this machine was pretty much built to run that OS, and an OS that was built to work on much better machines works better. Wow, that sentence had bad grammar! But you get my drift. Windows 7 actually works well on a 5 year old, Pentium M 1.1GHz, with 1GB memory.

So far I have watched DVD, listened to music, taught it to recognise my handwriting, which is a feat some people struggle with, surfed the net over Ethernet (haven't tested the wifi yet) connected to my phone with bluetooth (but only for the remote control application), and customized the hardware buttons (something that wasn't possible the XP Tablet Edition). When the RC expires in March next year, I will actually consider paying money to keep this OS operating on my antiquated computer system. Lets just say that again slowly. I will consider paying money for windows. I have never had to do this before. But Windows7 may change all that... Probably not, but maybe.

Which brings me to my next point. Compared to XP, I'm all about 7. But compared to Mac OSX, there's no contest. Actually, that's like beating up little kids:

• I'm running a machine which was built in 2004, at which time XP was the peak of windows history. These days, you need a veritable super computer just to run the aero-glass interface (which poor old Tabatha the tablet can't run, btw).
• Mac OSX only runs on new macs. New macs are all nice, well-spec'd, rather attractive computers. The whole experience is infinitely more pleasing than any windows computer out there.

So, it's kind of like taking a VW beetle, pimping the interior, and then racing it against a Porsche. It'll look better, be more comfortable to drive, and the little things like the orange soda dispenser will all work, but you're still going to get pwned.

Still, there is something deeply satisfying to the used-pc clepto in me: Tabatha cost me nothing. They were throwing them away at work, no HDD, no power supply, and no stylus. I took it home, plugged in a PS, threw in an old hdd and it went first time. Now I have a useful, albeit old, tablet PC that functions very well. And now it is running the latest version of windows, which was also free, as it is the RC.

Tabatha was originally going to be an 'open-source' play thing. I would use anything I can on it, as long as I wasn't supposed to pay for it. No pirated software, no legal versions of anything that cost money, it was supposed to be all free, all the time. Now, I am considering paying money for windows. That speaks volumes for 7, but it makes me think twice about actually writing that down. I mean, really, paying retail for a Microsoft product? Really? REALLY?!