About issues with MSVista, (and what the heck, Linux and the IMac.....):

For a "regular user" there is nothing better than an IMac, "it" just works....Or maybe go to Sears Roebuck and get one of their brand new Linux PC's at less than $200(US)

If you do not do heavy 3D gaming, do not do your own sound/music studio production, do not do special effects or high level animation work or CPU intensive graphics work on your computer, spending any more than +/-$200US is pretty close to as smart an activity as throwing money out of a car window doing 80mph on the interstate.

BUT.......
If you want a modern USB2.0 PC and right at or just a hair more than $200 (and at $200 that is LESS what you just paid for MSVista, the actually useable version)
Go to: pricewatch(dot)com and click on
"Computers PC no OS"

Pick out one of the systems that are less than $170 and increase the installed RAM to 2GB....I would at the least get one with a CDR/RW, but there are always USB CD/DVD drives if you want to stick with the lowest possible price.

Now that you have the PC, get a copy of PCLinuxOS, LinuxMint, SimplyMepis7.0, ZenWalk, or VectorLinux or DreamLinux and do the install........If the CD doesn't have all the software you are looking for/want/need, LOL, check out the distro's repository...More than you'll ever know what to do with, and if that's still not enough, there is more than you could possibly imagine available on the WWW.
A repository is where a distro maintains all of their compiled specifically to run with that distro software. (Yes geekers I know, but that's the simplest way I know to say it)

Your new PC w/Linux will run extremely fast, much faster and with more stability and "robustness" than any MSWin version on the same hardware. Run the OS in RAM and all your MSWin-fan friends will be amazed and jealous of the lightening speed your "budget PC" will outperform their super whiz bang with all the high dollar bells and whistles, maybe even astounded when you offer them a FREE AND LEGAL copy to try on their own machine.

Oh yeah, and you don't have to pay the MS or the Apple tax for your Operating System either...And, Linux requires much less high dollar hardware, and I can say this from personal experience....

There is never any need for "Security" software... no scanners, no "Anti-Virus", no registry mechanics, no de-frags, no nothing.....This thing has been running for just a few weeks now w/o being powered down or ever disconnected from the WWW. It is currently running 3 browsers/14windows/44 tabs (I just counted). I have gone as long as 10 months w/o ever shutting down or rebooting or disconnecting from the WWW, and other than an outgoing firewall, I run ABSOLUTELY ZERO "security" software

The Linux "learning curve" is, quite honestly, a vastly overblown issue mainly bandied about by people who either:
A) sell PC's and know that there is a lot more commission to be made on a $200 OS installed on a high hardware requirement PC than on a "naked" hard-drive PC w/o no need for unnecessary hardware "upgrades"
B) that have no idea what they are talking about, or
C) can only figure things out when somebody is there to step by step them through virtually every click...

If you can figure out anything at all "MSVista", you can figure out almost any Linux. SimplyMepis7.0 is a 4 click install that your Grandma could figure out how to install, run, modify, and download/install to. But some folks swear that the others mentioned above are just as easy an install, I just prefer SM7. I have already wiped several friends and familys hard-disc-drives clean of all things MS.....have had no complaints, not from even a single "home user" I havent anyway.... and near as I can tell, no one even knows what they are even running, they all just seem to realize that my claims of stability and security and ease of use are true and they never even turn off or disconnect their PCs anymore either.

Get a few LiveCD's and try them out, and install the one (or ones) that you like best....

But if you don't mind spending the money, for "Joe and Jane User", an IMac is pretty hard to beat.

AMD Sempron 3000+ Computer System; SATA DDR2 PCI-e -MBoard; 2GB DDR-2 Dual Channel RAM; 40Gb Hard Drive; CDr/RW DRIVE; DeltaChrome 3D 256MB Shared Video; 6-Channel Audio; 10/100 Ethernet (LAN); MIDTOWER CASE Assembled & Tested!
$210 (US) or, $230 to my door in 3 business days...
But then again, there is that $0.1325 per CD for burning an ISO image of each Linux distro you might want to try.....Or you can order them from the vendors advertising on DistroWatch.com for real cheap...like you can get maybe almost 100 complete operating systems and all the included software for the price of JUST ONE COPY OF MSVista!

Oh yeah....BTW.... with a Linux OS you are free to copy, modify, trade, sell, give away, install on 3256 separate machines. Ever actually read the MSXP/Vista EULA? You don't actually even own the contents of discs you just paid $200 for. And with Linux you can add/delete/change hardware devices at will and unlike with an MS OS, you won't have to buy a new OS whenever the MS decides that you have made too many changes and need to buy a new OS, as in MSWorld your clicking on "I agree" you agreed to give MS the right to determine the hardware changes make your old PC a new PC,and therefore to disable your system in in its entirety. And your new (or old) PC won't be "phoning home" everyday to report to MS what your software and hardware configuration was yesterday, is today, or what it is tomorrow.

Go to your friendly local Barnes and Noble, or Borders bookstore and get a copy of one of the Linux mags, I would suggest "LinuxFormat" and get the multiple OS DVD with the mag and try whatever versions are on the DVD..or CD....
And while you're there, get a copy of "Knoppix Hacks" you get Knoppix5.1.1 with the book. Knioppix, never leave home without it...no kidding...

Don't pay any attention to anyone telling you you need even more memory, a big video card or any such bull.....Unless you insist on getting a "MSVista" PC, in which case you need a minimum of 2GB RAM, and a pretty good video card would help too....And don't fall for all ANY talk about buying "Vista Home Basic", if you want a "Vista" that actually works at a speed you can tolerate (with enough hardware resources) you gotta "upgrade" for a whole lot more $$$. And for a whole less than what a free Linux distro will get you.
Except for a whole lot more money, what will buying MSVista actually do for you? Other than obligating you even further towards spending even more money on other software to defend and protect and correct the failings and shortcomings of the already vastly over-priced Operating System.Not too much it would appear.

OK, just to review...

Q: What is the best security etc protection for my home computer?
A: Quit using MSWindows of any kind.....

Believe what ever you want to, but for the cost of a CDW, you can solve your AV/security/stability issues all at once

Get a nice and easy Linux distro......
For a whole lot less than what you're paying for AV/security software, in either time and/or money, you can get a more responsive, more secure, more stable, more robust, more adaptable,and by far less resource intensive Operating System.
And, you won't be getting 2135 pounds of useless demoware and uselessware and trashware that you never asked for that does little more than annoy you and slow your system down.

And you can use that one little bitty disc for as many installations as you like. Why, you can even swap motherboards and HDD and CPU's and never even have to think about your hardware being monitored and your being forced to buy another copy of that same OS you just paid $200 for, 'all because you agreed to let MS determine when they decide you need to buy a new copy of that same OS. Oh yeah, remember now, you did! Yep, the very second you clicked "I agree" on that "End User License Agreement", you sure did, read it and see. You own nothing, maybe not even your own personal data.

Sorry to digress. Go to this link: http://www.distrowatch.com and click on the top 10, 20, 30 items, or maybe even all of them, on the right hand side of the page.
About halfway down the page on the far left you will come to a section titled" Reviews" click on whatever strikes your fancy.

If you really want to be secure. Load Knoppix from Cd,run Knoppix in RAM, save everything you do to a Knoppix persistent image, and never ever log in as root.You are now pretty much virus/etc proof.



HAGD!