I must be getting old, or just cheesed off with constant need to upgrade. Be it hardware or software, it seems to be relentless, and if I'm not mistaken, speeding up.

I run a Dell machine (Pentium 4 of five years vintage) and, at that time, a top of the range machine. Not any more it isn't - having run the Microsoft utility to determine whether I can run Vista it seems that I might as well throw this machine away.

I don't know how much I have spent, overall, on my computing habits - in hardware alone it's in the thousands. As for upgrades to software, what I have does exactly what I want, even if I only have version one of Photoshop Elements and Paint Shop Pro version seven for my photographic needs.

I look back nostalgically at Windows 3.1 with all its antiquated features. It was simple to use and did what I wanted at the time. As did the other ancient software I had; Lotus Smartsuite was one programme I particularly liked and that, like many others, has gone the way of the dinosaurs.

I expect you will run many more articles on upgrading, as that seems to be the nature of the beast these days, but for this subscriber the upgrading has stopped. I will keep my XP machine running as long as I can and maintain my current machine configuration along with it.

Of course, my anti-virus stuff has to be upgraded if I want to stay on the internet, but the many driver updates I also apparently require will not be downloaded - my hardware runs ok as it is, and that's how it will stay.

Steve Firth

This was a chance to get a cheaper, near-barebones manufacturer Laptop. Good old Dell for listening to us - or have they?

I recently found the UK website (yes, it is difficult to avoid the US site) for Dell Linux systems. Having recently seen the XPS M1330 first-hand, I thought it'd be a great buy without Vista; just imagine that cute little thing coming cheap. As a University student, I'll either get Vista Business for free under Microsoft's generous academic licensing, or use Linux, no sweat.

So I configure up an Ubuntu M1330 side by side with an identical Vista one: £855.98 versus £855.99?

What is Dell playing at, offering Ubuntu for £0.01 less? Even the Linux hardcore would be hard pressed to see the point of buying the Ubuntu system for that discount. In fact, is there a point offering it at all? Come on Dell, stop pretending to listen to us and give us exactly what we want: put Linux on a system and then charge much less for it.

Ed Canning

Being a keen PC gamer, I'm in the position of needing to replace my three-year-old desktop, simply because I can't upgrade it any further. Now, I'm not normally an 'early adopter', (I prefer my purchases to be tried and tested), and with the bad press Vista has been receiving, I have so far resisted migrating.

However, it appears Microsoft has seen to it that, as a gamer, I have no choice. If I want my new DirectX10 graphics card to perform to its full potential, I have no choice but to ditch XP.

And that got me thinking. Should I buy Vista in the 32- or 64-bit flavour? If I'd been asked that a year ago, the answer would be simple: 32-bit! Who needs more than 4GB of memory anyway? But is this still true today?

With applications requiring more and more Ram, the current shift toward multi-core, multi-thread and so on, has 32-bit reached the end of the road?

Granted, 64-bit software is still something of a rarity, but thanks to Microsoft's WoW (Windows on Windows) for Vista 64, most 32-bit applications should work just fine. And the driver situation seems to have improved vastly. Most hardware vendors also now offer X64 drivers, with only a few exceptions.

And since I'm building an entirely new PC anyway, I can simply check that a driver is available before I buy a component or peripheral.

Now I'm sure that most, if not all of the tech minded staff at PCW have at least tried a 64-bit OS. So how about sharing your experiences with us readers? Perhaps you could do a feature regarding the pros and cons, the benefits and pitfalls of making the leap. I'm sure I'm not the only reader considering the switch.

Alan McNeill

I only recovered when, on page 53, I found an advertiser offering a combined VCR/DVD player/recorder that would do the job with no effort at all and for under £100!

Geoff Hoult

I was thinking of investing in a media player but constantly hear poor reports about them; I am very interested in the PS3 as it offers a degree of future proofing (Blu-ray). Maybe you could offer an article comparing their media player abilities as we know about their gaming attributes.

David Walsh

I was indeed taught at school that the French for "nut" was "noix", but since then, and particularly after coming to live in France, I have come to realise that "noix" only means "walnut", and "hazelnut", for example, is "noisette".

There are some English-French dictionaries that do give "noix" as the translation of "nut", but Collins/Robert, usually regarded as one of the best dictionaries, makes it clear that there is no generic word in French corresponding to the English "nut" (in this sense of the word).
In this case, the French would have specified the type of nut, by using the specific name.

The phrase you used is incapable of being accurately translated into French if the word "nut" refers to a shelled fruit, and the translation given seems a likely one of the possible accurate translations.

Just to avoid misunderstandings, the word "noix" is used for other nuts, but only in a compound way, so that "noix de coco" is "coconut" and "noix de cajou" is "cashew nut"; but "noix" by itself is only ever "walnut".

Harry Shipley, France

At the time my son and I were attending a night class on BBC computing at Norwich college, and we had to take our Beeb with us. We soon got fed up of dismantling and re-assembling the monitor, floppy drive and all the cabling every week, so I hit on the idea of fitting it all in a wooden cabinet.

The only modification to the computer was the removal of the top of the case and to make a new cover out of aluminium, carefully fitted round the keyboard. All the cabling was placed inside the box, including the mains sockets for the electrical items. Printer and joystick sockets were brought out to the front of the unit.

David Bunting

A few years ago things were different, the requests were more about wishing Windows could do this or that, but since XP it's all been about speed and efficiency. Why then is Microsoft talking about touch-screen technology being integral to the forthcoming Windows 7? Have they learned nothing from Vista?

Windows does what we need it to. Improvements should be focused on getting it leaner and faster, not bolting on ever more features that few will use. Is the Asus Eee PC not proof enough that small and lean is the way forward?

I don't buy a computer to play with the operating system, I buy it to run the programs I need on it. All an operating system should provide is a pleasant and easy to use interface to access those programs while behind the scenes it gets on with the business of running the computer quietly and without fuss.

Surely by version seven Microsoft should have found a way to do this, but I suppose if they did, how would they make people buy the next version?

I can't help but think that Microsoft is scraping the barrel with touch screen; it's clearly essential for a handheld device but these, by their very nature, are at your fingertips.

Desktops however, are very different; who wants to be leaning across their desk all day smearing fingerprints over a new touch screen that they didn't want to buy in the first place?

Touch-screen technology may be useful for some, but surely it should be added on by those who need it, not forced onto everyone into the ever bloating Windows. So as it reaches middle-age, it looks like Windows isn't just susceptible to viruses but to middle-age spread too.

Jake Dovey

As a software developer, developing cross-platform solutions, I have for many years developed on Windows and tested on Mac. Over the years I have invested a considerable sum of money in software for Windows, thus prohibiting a complete change to the Mac. My office has always been Windows-based with a lone Mac laptop for testing.

My main development PC was getting a bit long in the tooth and an upgrade was required. A few months ago, following a review of some powerful PCs in your magazine, I purchased a blazingly fast quad-core PC with Windows Vista 64-bit.

For a few weeks I was delighted with my new purchase, as I gleefully installed lots of software and set all the preferences to make it work the way I wanted. Then it all started going wrong! In the end the vendor, Chillblast, agreed to take it back and offered a refund.

Then I saw your article about Apple Macs. I had never considered using a Mac as my main development machine, but the time was ripe for change and so off I trotted to the Apple store in Brent Cross. The staff were extremely helpful and, although knowledgeable about everything 'consumer', there were definite gaps in their knowledge when I started asking my more technically complex questions. Nevertheless a bit of research on the internet found the answers to all the questions that Apple staff couldn't answer.

There are a few minor niggles that I haven't yet got used to or found a solution to, but by and large, I'm delighted that your article convinced me to make the change at the time that it did.

Not only can I get on with my work without worrying if my machine is going to restart at any moment, but my new 24in iMac looks beautiful on my desk and is the envy of all my staff and colleagues. Apple even had a £60 printer rebate offer at the time of my purchase, so I got a new wireless printer for free.

Hopefully you'll write more articles about the Mac now, so I won't have to question my subscription to a PC-biased PCW!

Chaim Bacon

True there are praises here and there, but always followed by a rebuttal - over priced, slow, the 'i' in iMac stolen in 2000, rubbish keyboard, useless mouse, crashing gracefully!

On price you get what you pay for - ask any owner of a BMW! You can buy much cheaper Windows PCs and, provided you don't mind buying a new one every three years, then stick with them.

As for the Mac's keyboard, I find mine very fast. The mouse could be better, mainly because my large hands tend to cover the central button and, as often as not, when in a hurry I find that I have fumbled up the Dashboard. And the criticism of them being slow surely depends upon which one you buy.

As for the 'i' in iMac being stolen in 2000, I seem to remember that in 1998 my first Mac was an iMac. You mention crashing too, what an alien concept. Since the introduction of OS X 10.2 and onwards, I don't think I have ever had a crash on my Macs; they used to in OS 9, but that was years ago.

True there are sometimes situations where the spinning beach ball can hang, but it's only a three-fingered operation to force-quit the problem without affecting the rest of what is running.

I am so glad that I don't have to talk about A drives and C drives - we don't talk drives on a Mac at all. And finally, as for viruses and trojans, I have never had one and I've used my Mac every day for more than 10 years.

Vernon J Yarker

I recently brought a caravan and wanted to watch TV while away. I have a laptop with Vista Ultimate, and purchased a Freeview USB tuner (£23 from Ebuyer). I use this to record programmes to watch later.

Reception is mixed, usually poor due in part to the omni-directional aerial fitted to most caravans. I considered upgrading the aerial to a directional type as featured in a caravan magazine but it was quite involved and expensive at £100+ just for the aerial.

I then saw an advert on the internet for a portable satellite system from Maplin. The system was listed as Grade B (slight damage to case) with a full 12 month guarantee, price £49.99 including postage. This has everything required to hook up to a portable TV and the receiver has the bonus of working from 12V DC. For £8.50 I brought a capture card from Ebay that enables me to watch Freesat on my computer and all for less than £60!

John Everitt

I connected my old VHS recorder to my Sony hard drive/DVD recorder (RDR-HXD560) via Scart and was able to copy all our old home videos (using the original tapes in a carrier cassette) directly onto the hard drive. The machine also allows some editing, such as cutting out sections or dividing the whole video into smaller clips.

I could then make DVDs from these, naming each clip and putting them in order. The recorder offers a range of options for disc format and degree of compression. I could have recorded directly onto DVD if I hadn't wanted to edit the recordings first, and quality is at least as good as the original.

I can also copy ordinary un-copy-protected VHS tapes in the same way. No doubt other makes and models of hard drive/DVD recorder would do much the same.

For further editing in my Mac I have used free software (Mac The Ripper) to extract editable files from the DVD, but in most cases the limited editing within the recorder is all I need. I haven't tried connecting the recorder output directly to the computer.

Bob Gray

However, the screen is highly reflective and the computer is almost unusable in normal lighting conditions, making it impossibly difficult to use in a room with very good daylight levels, which causes both eye strain and tiredness.

The Office 2007 ribbon menus are particularly washed out and the reflection is such that the screen doubles as a very useful mirror.

I have talked to Toshiba and tried all the settings available in Vista, to no avail.

After bringing this to the attention of the retailer, I was given permission to look around the store for a replacement laptop with a less reflective screen - none could be found. In another store I eventually found a different type of screen on two Acer Aspire laptops (8920G and 6920G).

Toshiba boasts the Truebrite display while the Acer has a Cinecrystal display. A useful comparison test is to switch the computers off and then compare the reflections on the screens. The difference is remarkable.

Sales staff tell me that the highly reflective screens are better for viewing films from DVD, but this is of minor value to me.

Comments on viewing laptops in a range of lighting conditions would be useful in your reviews. Especially given that portable computers are supposed to be portable and be used in many different lighting conditions.

Cliff Hamer

I meant to write a few months ago to congratulate you on the excellent 30th Anniversary issue, which really was incredibly enjoyable.

However, at the time I was sure it was missing one important piece of history: the true story of what exactly Apple had done to so upset Clive Akass. I'm sure that Guy Kewney or someone else could have been induced to tell of the time Steve Jobs stole Clive's lunch money/parking space/girlfriend.

Having just received the September issue, it would appear that Clive's prejudices have spread.

Skipping through the news section - pausing only to mention that the iMac predates the iPaq by almost two years - we get to your cover story, which seems to be based on the premise that the only good Mac is a Mac running Windows. This is certainly a by-the-numbers piece on Apple, covering the usual arguments (overpriced and underpowered, accusations of smugness, one-button mouse etc).

In the feature, Cliff Joseph writes "However, Apple has spent decades and billions of dollars developing the Mac operating system, so it's not going to sit back and let you replace it with Windows". How very anti-competitive of Apple. Of course, the truth is far less dramatic. Intel Macs, fresh from the box, boot using EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface). This is Intel's successor to the ageing Bios; the piece of embedded software which Windows requires to load.

There was a time when PCW would have been rubbing its collective hands with glee at the thought of explaining something like this. It would have been given its own box-out, with acronyms explained, a bit of history and a quick discussion of when it's likely to be coming to the PC. Instead, we get one company's embracing of newer technology portrayed as an attempt to lock-out users.

Still, you showed really quite considerable restraint in not taking a cheap shot at the Newton in the same issue's Flashback piece.

Stuart Crook

This brings with it a whole range of exciting new sub-plots, including "Find the menu command" (which can keep players amused for hour on end) and "Spot the bug". The latter is especially exciting because the inventors have carefully spread a mixture of bugs around that repeat consistently.

I found a nice one in Excel called "print selection", which only prints the first six lines of the last page selected. Then there are those that appear almost entirely at random - the one I found lets Word refuse to show text boxes in .doc files written in Office 2003, but it only affects some text boxes, so you never know if they should have been there or not.

Sadly, the game has no check-list of clues, and even if you contact the supplier they will keep you guessing!

Office 2007 is not for the faint-hearted gamer. After three months I admitted defeat and decided to restrict my play to the Vista level. Even then, Office 2007 wasn't finished with me, as it decided to port one final game over to Office 2003 - the famous "make the EULA pop up every time I start the programme" game, which can only be completed by editing the registry.

If only these guys at Microsoft could develop real programmes that were as clever as their games!

Dave Scott