opinion

The Internet Archive shows us that the PC of Dr. Thomas Pabst, creator of Toms Hardware Guide - in December 1997 was the following beast of a machine:-

(If you are looking for first-class IT support in London, please feel free to contact us)

We carry around a lot of software on our USB keys these days in order to assist in doing our job. Here is the main selection of the software we keep on it.

Installations for New PC's

Standard to all

• PDF Viewer - Adobe Reader - Standard PDF Reader (or the faster Foxit PDF Reader)
• PDF Writer - PDFCreator - easily creates PDFs from any Windows program. Use it like a printer.
• Zip - built in since XP (or 7-Zip - Supports ZIP,RAR and many others and it's own 7z format is hard to beat.)
• Antivirus -NOD32 - The only antivirus we recommend. (there is also the FOSS ClamWin Antivirus - doesn't provide on access realtime scanning)
• Internet search - Google Desktop - easy access to information on your computer and from the web.
• Diagnosis/Support  - RunPCRun Total Support - Handy to have our support package!
• In place for repair work
  
• Malware - HijackThis and Ad-aware
• Drive imager - DriveImage XML or Acronis True Image
• Background
• .NET Framework  - allows end-users to run .NET applications.
• Java Runtime Environment - allows end-users to run Java applications.
• De-crap "Home" PC's - PC Decrapifier
  

I get a few people ask me (usually in social situations where I'm trying to think about anything other than work!), "What is the cheapest office set-up I can do?" for their new small business. runPCrun are many things, and while we believe we are the best solution considering time,cost and quality, we happily admit we're not necessarily the cheapest solution and this can be important when starting a cash-starved first business.

The BBC have done a report on unsecured wifi networks in the UK. There's still a huge number of people running unsecured wireless networks. Sometimes while on a customers site in Central London I will see up to 10 networks surrounding me and quite often a good 1/4 of them are unsecured.

or "How I learnt to stop worrying about bombs & migrate to GNU/Linux"

I've been a Microsoft Windows user for many years - I've grown up with it from using 286's with Windows for Workgroups 3.11 at University.

Time has moved on and GNU/Linux has become more usable, powerful and has some features and applications that make it indispensable as an Operating System today - I find myself using it more and more for certain tasks. Mostly server based, but I've gradually become more impressed with it as a desktop, especially since Ubuntu reached version 6.06 (Dapper Drake)

Now I'm always happy to use the right tool for the job, there's no Windows/Linux fanboy in me. However deciding on GNU/Linux at home is a personal choice due many reasons, including the licensing controversy surrounding Vista, price and DRM amongst others, and I simply don't wish to go with it. Since now 95% of the little gaming I do is now done on consoles (Damn you, Counter-Strike: Source and while I'm writing I'm currently on an Eve Online trial.) as it is the only software area that GNU/Linux can not reproduce as effectively at the moment. I felt it was time to make the move.

The end result I was looking at is total migration to GNU/Linux, at home for every application I use with any Windows applications running under WINE or as a last resort, on a Virtual Machine. I still use Windows at work (where I can control the machine and put whatever applications I wish to use on it anyway).
So I'm now on step 7 and doing quite well thank you. This step-by-step progression is quite a common sense approach, but what is obvious to some people isn't necessarily to others and so I list it here for those that could use a nudge.

This article suggests what we already knew (and what our customers quite often suspect) - Norton's products grinds your machine down to a snails pace while "Nod32 gets good security reviews and seems to leave the system fairly nippy".

The article and it's conclusion.