Computer questions. Can you help?

is it true that windows os slows down after a while and if so, is other os like that (im talking about after years)? what brand of pc companies are good for producing desktops, and what brands make good laptops(id like the top rated). if i want a video editing system, what would i go with(just a guy at home willing to pay up to 5 grand. not any more than that)? whats better, finalcut(mac) or adobe premiere(windows)? what windows is the best(95,98,2000,xp,vista….7)? what mac os is the best(im guessing the latest, right?)? what programs are great for digital photography(willing to pay a bit for that, but nothing too fancy like 2 grand dollar software. maybe at most 800)? what os never slows down?

Pretty much all OS slow down after a while… due to lots of different causes like registry editor buildup, fragmentation on disk, etc. I don’t have enough long-term experience to tell which slows down the least…

Brand of pc companies… lots of websites have reviews about them. Dell is probably the most popular, but you could use other companies.

I have premiere but haven’t really used it (it came as part of the CS3 package), but I don’t know of any problem of it. Most of the people I know who have both softwares prefer premiere, but I suggest you get a second opinion on that

Lol ok here is where i can answer… I would not suggest getting anything older than xp. XP is the simplest and therefore most effiecient (fastest) OS, but it really depends on how good of a computer you get. XP support by microsoft will also be discontinued in the future, (it’s getting harder to even buy windows XP now). Vista has a pretty bad reputation, but it’s not all that bad in reality… it just tends to use a lot of memory in the background and has compatibility issues. If your computer has enough memory, however, (not just minimum requirements), then you should be fine. Windows 7′s beta just came out and got positive reviews; it basically takes vista and fixes the bugs that people were upset about in the first place. If you can wait, go for windows 7, although it might not come out for a while (this year, next year? who knows). Otherwise, xp or vista… depends on which you look/layout are more comfortable with.

Mac… go for the latest (OS X leopard). It has features like time machine, where all your data is backed up, so you can “go back in time” to get that file you accidentally deleted a while ago. Mac or pc… that depends on whether you’re more comfortable with working with a taskbar or a dock…

Programs for digital photo… I would use photoshop. It’s nice yet can do a bunch of things… plus, you could perhaps get it in a bundle with premiere and save money =)

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