Agreed on that. And yeah it's really sad what happened to AVG. It used to be a pretty darn good suite back in the pre-v7 days 
Speaking of minimum cost, anyone notice that MS launched a new cheaper tier of Technet? Basically the same as the old cheap version, but $100 cheaper ($249 new, $149 annual renewal) and cuts out "infrastructure" software - I'm assuming server OSes and stuff like that, but you still get Windows, Office, etc. Pretty solid deal, esp if there are always sales and coupon codes for it like there have been with the $349 version.
I wonder if I can renew at the $149 price when my sub is up?
Back in my Windows days, I was an AVG evangelist. Free AV!? I don't have to pay Norton or McAfee? Sign me up.
It's the first thing I went to when I installed Windows on my Mac. But sadly, it is no longer the great free AV it used to be, and there are better alternatives that are free now.
MSE is pretty nice, that's what I use on my Win7 install on my MacBook Pro. I have to say that Windows 7 really brightened my view on MS. Vista done right.
I've been getting kind of bummed as I've been getting into PC gaming that I could have 2 Core i7 MSI 17" gaming notebooks for what I paid on my MBP. The Mac sucks for gaming. On WoW with most settings on low, if I have on the integrated 9400m, I'll get around 35 FPS in Orgrimmar, and down into the 25 range at a busy time. With the 9600m GT, I'll get closer to 45 FPS, but the notebook gets retarded hot and sounds like a hairdryer running, so I stay on the integrated card to keep the heat acceptable.
I booted into Windows 7 and installed the WoW client the other day. Win7 only uses the discrete 9600 card, and in Org I was easily getting 60 FPS on low settings, and sitting comfortably in the 45 FPS range on the Ultra graphics setting, but again, the machine sounds like a hairdryer with the fans on full.
It's great when I'm just browsing the web in OS X, getting a nice 6 hour battery life and cool operation (at least when I'm not on a flash website
). But when I want to game, I either have to deal with worrying about overheating or craptastic frame rates.
My sister needs a notebook for college this year, and I've already got the money for an iPad for any mobile internet usage that I only really use the notebook for. I'm tempted to let her buy my MBP and build me a Core i7 rig for gaming. I might have to make a WNFF poll ala Jmad to help decide
