Sorry for the posting hiatus, my trusty old notebook contracted motherboard-itus. Some cleaning and some motherboard work got it back on its feet but that didn’t stop me from searching for a replacement. If you’ve been computer shopping lately you may have walked away with a bigger headache then you bargained for. The sheer number of choices to make is staggering and there is a lot of misinformation and questionable marketing which makes the experience a lot harder then it needs to be.

Don’t worry though, there is help on the way! Our New PC Buying Guide should be up shortly which will help you make sense of the hardware, software, and services choices you’ll need to make before pulling the trigger. In the meantime you’ll want to hold off on a PC purchase until on or after June 26th. After that any new computers loaded with anything other than Windows XP, Vista Basic, or a Netbook/UMPC OS will be eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 7. Of course there are some catches to the free upgrade which we’ll go over in the Buying Guide.

If a Netbook is your thing then check out our existing Netbook Guide and this clever chart.