By Dennis D. McDonald

I'm an independent consultant. I move from place to place a lot. Sometimes I hook into a client's network, sometimes not. I'm constantly on the web and I'm increasingly using web based resources to support my work.

I don't program and I don't play games on the computer. But my current main machine, a two year old laptop, is beginning to show wear round the edges.

So I've been thinking of a new machine -- and Vista. But I am not looking forward to deciding in which direction to go, and the current pricing scheme for Vista I find completely confusing. It makes me think, "Wait, the reason I need a computer is not to run an operating system, it's to generate information and communicate with people through a variety of software applications and tools."

I'm seriously beginning to think my next machine should run OS X...