Few of us acquire a PC as a status symbol, or try to find one in a color (some MAC users do!) that goes well with our eyes. How much PC you need is entirely dependent on what you want to do with it. Although extensive software reviews are beyond the scope of this site, it is largely the software that sets the minimum hardware requirements. Owning a computer is a constant battle against obsolescence. Over the years, I've invested much time and money in many systems, only to end up shelving them in the garage or selling them for next to nothing. 7 years ago I built my current system. Yes that's right, my system is over 8 years old! Yet it is a powerhouse! 775 pin 2.4 GHZ Quad Core CPU with over a terabyte of hard disk storage and 8 Gigs of RAM! How can this be? Upgrades every 4 months, that's how. My computer is always state of the art yet I have only spent $4100 on my computer ober these same 8 years!!!!!! If you write me (question@midiguru.com) I can explain how. How much computer you may need is determined by the software you need to use. Therefore, your computer needs to satisfy the "box" requirements, or the minimum suggested hardware configuration of the software you are going to be using.
With the exception of some games, compatibility with the Microsoft Windows operating environment is a must for using the great majority of store bought software. This excludes PCs older than 486s from our discussion, unless they are already loaded with the software you will use. That doesn't imply that an older PC in working condition should be refused or thrown out, but upgrading a 486PC to run with Windows Vista essentially involves replacing everything except the case. Keep in mind that any computer built by MIDIGuru's standards (even 7 years ago) will upgrade to the latest Core 2 Quad specifications for a fraction of a new computer. No brand name computer company can consistantly make that boast.
For any of the tasks we consider, a new Midiguru Core 2 Duo, costing $1600 would be more than sufficient. In fact, some companies have broken the cycle of buying new computer every two or three years because the Pentiums and Athlons they have are still performing adequately. How much performance you require is pretty much dependent on how patient you are and how much time you spend using the computer each day. For example, when repositioning a picture in a desktop publishing program, a new Pentium-4 may redraw the screen in a half second, while a hand-me-down 486 might take 30 seconds. If you don't think 30 seconds is that bad, try repositioning the picture 20 times to get just the right look. Then imagine formatting 50 pages a day, or paying an employee to sit around for over an hour each day in accumulated 30second increments.
Operating Systems and Environments
Whenever you turn on your PC, it loads an operating system, a large software program that controls how any programs you run get along with the hardware. The operating system came to be known by the acronym DOS (Disk Operating System), pronounced like "boss" with a "d." There is actually another layer of software that works even more closely with the hardware than the operating system, called the BIOS (Basic Input Output System), and this software is permanently stored on the motherboard. We'll talk more about the BIOS another time. The DOS operating system provides a number of necessary tasks. The organization of files (containers of text and data) on the drives is defined and controlled by DOS. When a file is printed, it's DOS that sends the data to the printer port, and reports back if the printer can't successfully complete the job. One of the most important jobs DOS does is to organize the memory (RAM) into blocks dedicated to housekeeping functions or program use. Currently Windows Vista (Although WinXP is still capable) is the Disk Operating System of this GURU's choice.
The biggest complaints users and developers had about DOS is the rigidity with which it managed memory. Most of the problem stems from history. It didn't occur to programmers of the original DOS operating system that PCs would ever have more than 640 kilobytes of RAM, because when DOS was being developed, RAM cost almost five hundred times as much as it does today. By the same token, nobody thought the programs would ever get as big as they have. The 512KB (a half of a megabyte) that shipped with the IBM-AT seemed more than enough for any software challenge. Finally, the whole philosophy of the PC, which does stand for Personal Computer after all, was that only one person would use it at a time. This freed the creators of DOS from worrying about multi-tasking, the ability of a computer to shuffle memory and jump from task to task, something that today's computers are required to do. As the years went by and PCs became cheaper and more powerful, programmers wanted to take advantage of memory sizes over 1MB, and introduce multi-tasking features to make their software faster and more flexible. Along came a bunch of band-aids, like the Expanded Memory Specification (EMS), which set aside a small block of regular DOS memory to use as a revolving door for accessing RAM on a special adapter. Other fixes involved software products that took over certain memory management functions from DOS and squeezed more room out of standard block set aside for programs. Competitors of DOS that boasted better memory management and multitasking included IBM's OS/2 and different flavors of the UNIX operating system, which was sold by a number of companies. Both OS/2 and UNIX continue to have some success in niche markets today, particularly in areas where multitasking is the primary requirement. Microsoft Windows did not eliminate all of the DOS limitations, because it was an operating environment which ran on top of DOS. Microsoft Windows NT, which has been winning market share from OS/2 and UNIX, is an operating system in its own right, just like Windows98.
Windows
Another complaint users had about DOS was that it wasn't easy to learn. Even the Midiguru had to have a DOS book standing by to solve problems. (I eventually memorized about 90% of it.) The only way to communicate with the operating system was to enter commands on the keyboard, like "PRINT myfile.txt" or "DIR C:," meaning "Show me a DIRectory of the files on the C: drive." Another approach to working with the operating system called the Graphical User Interface (GUI), pronounced "gooey," (not guru either) had been developed at Xerox and popularized by Apple with their Macintosh computers. Microsoft soon had a competing product out for the PC, the Windows operating environment, . In 1995, Windows 95 was introduced, which supports higher performance software at the cost of requiring higher performance hardware. Contrary to popular belief, the 95(0) stands for the number of times Windows 4.0 had to be rebuilt. Now because of the popularity of the 95 operating system Windows 98 was called such because it was the year 1998. The new Microsoft Windows XP is actually their NT > win2000 upgrade. The 98 Upgrade is called Millenium(ME), and started shipping near the end of summer 2000. The latest and greatest pf the NT series is Windows Vista 64.
Windows offers several advantages to both software developers and users. The biggest advantage for developers is they don't need to write a new software interface for every new piece of hardware that comes down the pike. For example, a DOS word processor like WordPerfect or Word had to include a special piece of software known as a "printer driver" for every printer that the word processor would work with. This not only required a lot of work for the developer, even if subsidized by the printer manufacturer, but meant the user would have to go through the printer selection step with each new word processor, spreadsheet, or other piece of application software installed. Windows functions as a sort of middle-man, so that the user only needs to install a printer driver once, the Windows driver, and the applications developers write printer drivers not for specific printers, but for the Windows interface. The same holds true for all the other hardware components that would otherwise need special software to communicate with each different program, like scanners, video adapters and sound cards.
Another advantage to the user, which is often taken for granted, is the fact that programs written for Windows all look pretty much alike. Anyone who has used one Windows application can go into a totally new one and already know how and where to save a file, get help, change the fonts, or print. While mice were certainly supported by most later DOS applications, Windows programs are designed from the ground up to take advantage of such pointing devices. The mouse can be used in Windows to do all of the communicating with the operating environment. If one has Windows Vista and greater than 512 Megabytes of RAM, typing can be truly be eliminated. Vista & XP have the power (when combined with OFFICE XP) to recognize speech. In both the dictation and command modes. That means you can talk to it, and it can talk and understand you. Those rare times it does not recognize a word can be trained away or the spelling checker will correct. Otherwise, the only typing the user can't avoid is typing text or entering data. It is possible to work in Windows without a pointing device, using the "Alt." "Ctrl" and "Tab" keys in conjunction with the other keys to navigate and execute menu commands, but it is not a lot of fun. The biggest advantage is that you may now throw several programs at one task, copying from one application to another using a common "clipboard".