As previously blogged I am one of the lucky few who is recieving a shiney new Acer Ferrari 5000 from Microsoft and AMD. What am I planning to do with it after the review? Well the options included in the email offering it to me were:
- Send it back to Microsoft
- Keep it
- Give it away
Of these three it was instantly down to options 2 and 3. The idea of sending it back - to paraphrase Douglas Adams - never even began to speculate about the merest possibilty of crossing my mind. In the end I have decided at this stage to keep it. For what it is worth, here are my reasons.
Reason One - I have a need...
- I have a need for another computer in the house. What use to be the family desktop computer was pressed into service as a server to keep my blog on air when the PC it was running on began showing signs of an imminant drive failure. We have been wanting a shared computer but financial circumstances at the moment do not permit purchasing another computer at this time.
- I also need a development machine. Since the loss of my desktop the only machine I have for development is my work provided M400 (the Motion Computing LS800 I use as my main machine if fine for normal use but struggles with Visual Studio). Developing on a work provided machine is suboptimal because according to the terms of my contract that means that work technically owns the IP, even if I do it in my own time! This has not been an issue so far as I have not been trying to sell anything I have developed, but I still don't like it.
Reason Two - It creates opportunity...
- I use Vista Business on my LS800. This is the free copy I was given for participating in the beta program and filing more than one bug. My work computer also has Vista Business on it. Being provided with a machine with Vista Ultimate allows me to explore the features that are not in the Business SKU and that gives me more to blog about. I am interested in exploring Media Centre, for instance, and blogging about integrating that into my mobile life.
Reason Three - I am a gadget geek...
- I have to be honest about it - the Acer looks like a really cool machine "on paper". It has some nifty features that I can't wait to check out.
I have no great moral dilemma about keeping this machine. I will review it, providing a fair and honest review of the hardware and the bits of the OS I am exploring. I feel no need to only say nice things about either the machine or the OS - that does no favours for anyone. I will provide feedback and I will - as always - try to provide it in a constructive manner.
I do want to clear up some misconceptions.
- Some of the Acers were sent to selected MVPs. I'm one of those. I am not an A-List blogger (my list may be a bit further down the alphabet ;) ). I am an MVP that happens to blog.
- I do not make my living (or any significant money for that matter) from my blog. Every now and then my Google Adsense money lets me buy a new gadget, but by that I mean the headphones, not the iPod!
- I do not consider myself to be a journalist. I blog my opinion. Everything on my blog is editorial at best.