Oct. 24--For just about everybody who uses a computer, October is turning out to be Christmas, New Year's, Thanksgiving and Groundhog Day all rolled up into one.

For Windows Vista users, a long winter of spotty peripheral support, confusing security alerts and hardware-sapping performance promised to come to an end with the introduction Thursday of Windows 7, Microsoft's well-reviewed answer to a couple of really bad years.

Most tech writers are saying Windows 7 is indeed ready for prime time. Microsoft focused on usability, understandable yet strong security and, above all, speed. The hardware requirements for "7" are pretty much the same as for Vista. I recommend a minimum of 3 gigabytes of RAM and any multi-core processor made in the past two years. And that's only for computers that a) are running Vista now or b) you plan to purchase with "7" preloaded.

If you're running Windows XP now and have a PC that's even the slightest bit long in the tooth, just stick with it. Or shell out for a new computer. Or give Ubuntu Linux a try (more on that later).

Partisans of Apple's Macintosh aren't entirely out in the cold. Sure, the OS X 10.5.6 Snow Leopard upgrade didn't really bring much to the table other than added stability. That's why it's priced at $29, not the usual $129.

But if you do have a spare $1,200 to $2,000, Apple just released four shiny new iMacs, those all-in-one computers that generally blow most Windows PCs out of the technological water, design-wise anyway.

What do you get for all that dough? Either a 21.5-inch or 27-inch screen, fast dual-core Intel processors, 4 GB of RAM, either a 500 GB or 1 terabyte hard drive. And all that Snow Leopardy stability.

And what Apple calls the Magic Mouse. It's magic, you see, because it's wireless and works with figure gestures, not buttons. If you can work an iPhone, you can work the Magic Mouse.

If you like Macs and aren't bothered by this pesky economy, it's a great time to buy.

For me, the end of October marks the release of Ubuntu 9.10, which calls itself "Linux for human beings." I've been running the free Ubuntu Linux operating system on my main laptop since May, and I'm pretty happy with it.

Ubuntu releases a new version every six months and lets me do just about everything I need to do on my 7-year-old laptop. After the dust settles in a month or three, I'll upgrade to 9.10.

Despite the "human beings" orientation, you still need a bit of geek in you to run Ubuntu. If you have an aging PC, Ubuntu can give it a few more years of life. Learn more at www.ubuntu.com, or my extremely geeky http://blogs.dailynews.com/click.

-----

To see more of the Daily News or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dailynews.com/.

Copyright (c) 2009, Daily News, Los Angeles

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

NASDAQ-NMS:MSFT, NASDAQ-NMS:INTC,

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.