I think the original author is overestimating the cost of swapping. If you have a decent amount of memory (2GB+) and a fast hard drive (7200RPM+) you will usual

I think the original author is overestimating the cost of swapping. If you have a decent amount of memory (2GB+) and a fast hard drive (7200RPM+) you will usually get decent performance even when you have lots of memory-intensive tasks open. Personally, I run Vista + 3-4 virtual machines + Outlook + Carbide.c++ and/or IntelliJ IDEA and/or NetBeans + a bunch of web browsers + multiple databases with 3GB of RAM with no problem. I use a 14.1" screen on my laptop. Sometimes I wish I was using a bigger screen, but the majority of the time screen real estate isn't a big problem. In order to really make use of a giant screen I would need some new plugins for my IDEs that let me control my web browsers while keeping the focus in the editor. Otherwise, the smaller screen actually makes it easier for me to focus on the what I am looking at--everything is always in the center of the screen. The main issue I have with my current system is with the CPU speed. Since I started doing C++ programming I have really noticed the slowness of my 3-year-old CPU and memory. I would love for my builds to complete instantly instead of taking 3-5 seconds each.