Re: Legal Question - So do I buy Adobe Win or Mac?

[John Richard] "Tim - how tough was your changeover to Vista - did you go the upgrade path; or the clean install and start over from scratch; or was it just an entire new workstation from the get-go. And which version of Vista do you recommend?"

Not having the software you need is the BEST reason not to change OSes. My recommendation to people with existing installations has always been NOT to upgrade before you need to. Good for you not getting sucked into the "it's new and I want it...even if it's a bad idea" fever that you see all around the Cow.

Whenever the name of a release changes -- Panther to Tiger, NT to XP -- a clean install is a really, really good idea. Back up, wipe the partition, start over. Most people don't, most of the time nothing bad happens....

...but for people who DO have trouble, this is one of the two most frequent reasons why. The other is older hardware. Even if it's powerful stuff, there are too many back-side inconsistencies for previous-generation hardware to work with next-gen software for long.

Which is why my working theory is that few people will have a better experience with Vista than Mac users who install it on a new Win partition on their Macs. :-) Been working for me, smooth as can be.

I'll step on my soapbox about anti-Vista hype another day -- short version: 2 million people on an 18-month public beta is going to kick up dust that'll settle down on its own....given that people pay attention to clean installs and fresh hardware.

There are plenty of charts and such that compare all the features, but the short version is that the Business edition is the sweet spot for most folks at the Cow. And I have Ultimate because I'm just that kind of guy. :-)