The golden rules of computer happiness are a series of principles that I us to filter my digital life with, I have developed these basic rules over twenty something years of repairing building and selling
computers and their related and ever expanding list of add on devices and software.
These few rules will save you money time and above all frustration, when it comes to making computer or technology choices for the home or office ,the rules are the same.
Rule 1 - Never buy or deploy release one of anything
This is the first principle for a number of good reasons,1) whatever it is will be cheaper and better by release two,and even if the device or software is the best thing since androids learnt to talk, it will be better and cheaper in two or three months guaranteed.
this is the only industry I know that sells a product with known bugs (a nicer word for faults or errors) and then has the audacity to say yes we are aware of that problem and it will be addressed in release two.
2) Compatibility, true compatibility comes over time especially when it comes to operating systems there are thousands of devices on the market that all want to run with your O/S (operating system)and the manufactures a touch deeper than this factures of these devices are notorious slow in updating and releasing new drivers,finding it much cheaper and easier to blame Microsoft or Apple.for any incompatibility problems. the same can be said of many top rating websites they can be slow to adapt to the new operating environment,all of this can lead to hours of niggling problems that could have been avoided by simple not being among the first few hundred thousand to be the crash test dummies.for a new product be it software or hardware.
Rule 2 - Keep your software and hardware in the same generation
This is the second principle because many evils begin when we cross pollinate our hardware and software. Your computer is effectively a two part machine, for every piece of hardware there is a corresponding piece of software known as a driver - a driver is a software program that forms the link between your hardware and your operating system. informing the operating system of the various strengths and weakness of the hardware devices that make up your computer.
unless the driver, the hardware, and the operating system, are compatible they will malfunction.
It goes a touch deeper than this - Operating systems in there entirety are written to be compatible with a series or chipset or type of CPU, for example XP was written with the Pentium 4 processor as its preferred partner. Windows 7 and for that matter vista are and were written for the next generation of CPUs and chipsets.They are also designed in two basic configurations 64 bit and 32 bit .so in short putting Windows 7 on an old school P4 is the wrong move - now plenty will want to howl me down and state plenty of examples of how there old faithful P4 runs sweetly on win 7 great and Yippee - its still wrong and will lead to flakeyness
