My Picks

The following are my recommendations for computers, accessories, software, etc.  In all cases, I actually own and use these products.

Over the years, I have had extremely good results with Dell computers.  Many people believe that they can build a cheaper PC from individual parts, but they forget who is then responsible for its repair!

I own five Dell PCs, (two laptop, two servers, and one desktop) and have only have good things to say about Dell products and their customer support.  The one and only problem that ever had with a Dell product (a bad video display on one of the laptops) was fixed in less than four days, and that included shipping and handling times.

Everyone subscribing to either DSL or cable Internet should be using an external hardware firewall/router.  I recommend the D-Link DI-604.  This unit is extremely easy to setup and use.  It can be purchased for as little as $20, if you shop around.

When shopping for such a unit, do NOT let the sales person convince you to purchase a software firewall.  They are not the same!  In my experience, software firewalls are more trouble than they are worth.

Although there are a lot of graphic editors out there, nothing beats The GIMP.  The average person just not need the capabilities of the high-end programs.  And the free price of The GIMP is just icing on the cake.

For most people, OpenOffice.org works as well, if not better, than the commercial equivalents.  It is also available at no cost.  I mainly use it when I need to open and modify .DOC and .XLS documents that clients have sent to me.  For general word processing use, I much prefer WordPerfect.

There is no question on this point: Linux is my operating system of choice.  It is far more stable than anything I have ever worked with, and that includes everything from DOS to Windows 2.0 to Windows 2003.  Unfortunately, it is a "Windows World" so not every application out there has a version for Linux.  But that has not stopped me from running a business using nothing but Linux.

There are many different choices of the so called Linux distributions out there, with most of them available at no cost.  My distro of choice is Slackware.  I have been using it since 1996, and it has served me quite well.

If you print very little color, then there is nothing better than a laser printer  I mainly use a Brother HL-1440 of which I purchased on sale for less than $100 at OfficeMax.  I really appreciated the fact that memory expansion uses cheap and readily available 72 pin PC memory.

If you need color, then almost any cheap inkjet printer will work fine.  The problem with this idea is that, ounce for ounce, the ink used in color print cartridges costs as much as gold!  The cost per color printed sheet can run as much as $0.50 or more, which starts to really add up quickly if you are printing out a 100 page report.

If you would like both a web browser and e-mail client in the same application, then Mozilla is your best bet.  Mozilla's cousin, Firefox is a stand-alone web browser, and works quite well for people that do not need an integrated e-mail, chat, html editor, etc.

Without a doubt, WordPerfect is my favorite!  I have been using it since the early 1980's and have yet to find a better word processing program.

The above information is provided "as is" without any guarantee. Use it at your own risk! The author takes no responsibility on what you do with this information.

Timothy Miller Computer Consulting can recommend the best solution for all of your system requirements.  Please call for more details.