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[Reply #45 on:]

You may also ask yourself whether you actually need all of that software that you have installed.  Try a fresh OS install and work with it for a month, only installing applications as you actually need them.  You might be surprised.  I certainly was when I took this approach...

Also think about utilizing cloud based services.  Let someone else deal with backups if its possible.

Another potential idea: if you have never tried a linux distribution, or haven't tried one in the last year or so, give it a shot.  Ubuntu, for example, is fast, lightweight, and free.  Arduino, avr-gcc, avrdude, fritzing, etc all work just fine in this environment.

I abandoned Windows altogether in 2006 and haven't missed it; only recently put windows 7 in a virtual machine to play with AVR studio.

I'm an old unix guy, so it was an easy change for me.  I also spent a good chunk of my career developing windows applications, and have held MCSE, MCPS, and other M$ certifications.  I know the platform quite well, just don't particularly like it.

[Reply #46 on:]

You may also ask yourself whether you actually need all of that software that you have installed.

I know I don't use half the apps I have loaded, but I leave them there just in case It would be better to do as you state.

As for moving to Unix, not a chance, I'm doomed to a lifetime of Windows because I would bet that most of the programs I use don't have Unix versions, and even if they did I'd have to buy new licenses.

______
Rob

[Reply #47 on:]

I'm doomed to a lifetime of Windows

This is the saddest thing I've read all day.  Sniff.

Seriously though, you might be surprised.  There is an amazing variety of free software available on the Linux platform, much of it equal to or surpassing the quality of commercial solutions.  The Arduino IDE is but one example.

[Reply #48 on:]

This is the saddest thing I've read all day

Must be very early in your part of the world eh?

The Arduino IDE is but one example.

Maybe but not a good one, it's pretty ordinary and I never use it unless it's to see if a code example compiles before I post it here.

Probably not much of the stuff I use (Altium, CorelDRAW, PTgui, Photoshop, AVR Studio being the major ones) is available on Unix. I know there are often equivalents (eg Photoshop => Gimp) but I don't want to relearn all that crap. And there's still the new license issue. And then I have my own VB apps I've written over the years.

I looked at Open Office a while back but I don't think it had an email client.

I'll look back into it, it's been a couple of years and these things change a lot.

______
Rob