By Rob Cheng

Welcome to yet another edition of the Free Software News. One of the reasons that I love the Windows world is the availability of lots of high quality and totally free software. I love using free software and here are some tips and advice from the world of free software.

I was at a party, and more than one person asked me for advice buying a new computer. Here's what I told them and I thought I would share.

Are you sure you need a new computer? This is not popular advice, but I honestly believe that most people don't need a new computer. The main reason people purchase a new computer is because the old one is slow. The first question is whether they might want to save the money and get the old one running faster. It's not just the money. You usually lose a day getting the new computer running like you want with all of your files moved to the new one.

If you have been following the news, the social media web site Twitter was compromised last month. When the story hit, the "hacker" had copies of Twitter's most intimate information - financial forecast, employee rosters, etc. Roll back to the 2008 American presidential candidate race, and Sarah Palin, vice president hopeful, was also "hacked."

We are living in amazing times. The world is changing at an incredible rate. Check out this video called "Did You Know?". The point behind the video is that the world is changing very quickly. Indeed. Where it all ends, nobody knows. But let's take a look at one aspect - the internet.

First off, if you are reading this letter, I want to thank you. Thank you from each and every person working at PC Pitstop. If you are interested in purchasing a PC Pitstop product, we thank you for your interest. If you have purchased our product, we thank you even more. Moreover, I want thank you for telling your friends about our products, and saying all the great things that I have read over the years. Believe me, we read them all, and we love them.

There has been a lot of buzz lately about the iPhone replacing the PC. Here's one from my buddy, Harry McCracken. The owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, wrote a piece as well. There is certainly a lot of buzz and hype about the iPhone, but as a practical matter, the iPhone is nowhere near able to significantly encroach onto the venerable PC's territory. As I write this, I am thinking of all my friends that have iPhones, and the look of pride on their face. I am not trying to rain on that parade, I just honestly do not think of the iPhone in the same category as the PC. Here's why.

Welcome to the World of Free Software. We at PC Pitstop have a very unique view on free software because we test so many PC's every day! As I have already documented, I love free software. Not because of the price tag, but because in many instances, the free software is superior to its capitalistic competitors.

It's a fine line for a software company, but most freeware entities spend almost all of their activity and money on development. Balance that against a more typical company that spends money on marketing, distribution, OEM partners, etc.

I am very excited about Windows 7. In fact, I can't wait. It can't happen soon enough. Without flat out admitting it, Microsoft is finally realizing what we, as users, have known all along. Vista delivered far less than expectation after a five year wait from the smartest, wealthiest, largest, and savviest software company in the world.

But let's not look backwards, now is the time to look forwards to a bright future for Windows and its suffering users. Having purchased Vista in March 2007, and one of its first guinea pigs, here is my wish list for Windows 7 and why.

Windows Movie Maker. As I reported almost two years ago, there still is a major problem with Windows Movie Maker. In the middle of editing (sometimes at the end), a horrible error message "Windows Movie Maker has stopped working." appears. If you Google the above error message, it is easy to imagine millions of people getting the same error message.

Are you worried about having your identity stolen? I am. It has happened to two people that I know. My mother and a friend of mine in in Myrtle Beach. Once your identity is stolen, your life is forever changed. Even after you spend weeks upon weeks squaring everything away with your credit card company, things will never be right. You begin to dread answering the phone because it may be someone that erroneously thinks you owe them money. My mother was close to tears still getting phone calls 5 years after the alleged deed took place. It certainly wears on you.

Welcome to the Ultimate Guide to keeping your PC running fast and great. As I discussed in a prior article, the more you use your PC, the more your PC requires maintenance. Every email you read, every web site you visit, and every document you create, leaves little bread crumbs on the hard drive. Over the space of the days, weeks and months, these thousands and thousands of bread crumbs ultimately slow down your PC. Fortunately, there are ways to keep your PC like new, and in some cases better than new. Let's get started.