Vista!

I finally got my copy of Windows Vista from HP. Two DVD-ROMs came in the mail. The first DVD contained Windows Vista from Microsoft. The second DVD contained the Hewlett-Packard drivers and other stuff. (My computer is actually a Compaq brand that is manufactured by HP.) I spent the better part of a day installing MS Windows Vista. The installation of Vista from the Microsoft CD took about 2 hours. The HP part took another hour or so to install.

Reading through the HP FAQs on Vista, I found that there was a long list of 3rd party programs that had one issue or another when running under Vista. HP's solution to a few of these problems was to completely uninstall the software that didn't run, and hope that the manufacture would come up with a timely update.

Then for about a two week period, I struggled to get everything working right as I was frequently experiencing a problem with one application or another. To make a long story short, I finally gave up. I re-formatted the hard disk and restored Windows XP on my machine. I'm going to wait a few months and do a clean install (instead of upgrading XP). In the meanwhile, I will hope that they come up with Vista-compatible versions of the software I use.

Was installing MS Windows Vista frustrating? Well, I didn't know what I really expected, but the benefits are few. Microsoft has touted its Aero interface. It does look cool, but I am not sure what practical advantages it has over the XP interface. And, I'm not so sure that I like the Windows Vista search feature. I especially don't like the fact that it automatically searches through old Emails.

Anyway, I also wanted to give another shameless plug for my favorite personal finance blog PFStock.

Norton AntiVirus: 1 License for $10, or 3 for FREE

Norton AntiVirus costs $40 for the one user version at Fry's Electronics. You can then get a $30 rebate if you buy it in conjunction with some tax software product (TaxCut or TurboTax). That works out to $10 (plus tax and postage) after the rebate from Symantec. Or you can spend $45 to get a 3 license version of Norton AntiVirus (NAV). They offer a $45 rebate for the 3 license version. That makes it "free" after rebate -- strange but true. So, given these choices why would anyone buy the one license version?

I have another interesting thought. Suppose that you have three computers. You then install one copy of NAV today, another copy in a month, and the third copy in the last month. Since you have a 12-month license, is the 12-month term for each computer based on when you installed it on that particular computer? Or is it from when you installed the first copy on the first computer? Suppose that I only have two computers, and I use two licenses. If after 12 months I buy a new computer, can I still use the third license on that computer, or is it already used up?