Dear silicon.com... petty cash, Vista sales, swelling SMEs...

What's got silicon.com readers reaching for their keyboards this week? Reader Comments of the Week showcases how our users are responding to the latest tech news and views on the site...

No more cash?
Is cash costing you three days per year?

This is rubbish!

Anybody else find it not-strange-at-all that this study was by none other than VISA!?

I've stood far longer in Starbucks waiting to pay when everyone in front of me pays with a card...
-- Anonymous, Newcastle upon Tyne

I wonder did they also analyse the time you stand in a queue, waiting for someone phaffing trying to find a card, then to use it, only finding it didn't work and have to have the cashier void everything, when you only wanted one item and you had the exact change in your hand.

there is far less to go wrong with cash, and when you loose it that is the limit of your loss and you don't have to spend hours trying to convince companies of what was actual use and what was fraudulent use.
-- Guy Reynolds, Letchworth, UK

What self-interested tosh!

cash has one great advantage - it is anonymous. I don't care to have Visa et all know any more about what I do than they do already - and that is probably too much.
-- Anonymous, South

Apple crashes out
Leopard users get 'blue screen of death'

Apple are wanting to attract Windows users to defect to the Mac. This latest foul-up is very typical of Microsoft products and means that Apple are now following Microsoft more and more.

Maybe Apple need to change direction and avoid being so much like their main rival.
-- David King, London

lost data !

have people never considered the possibility of making a backup or do macs never get hit by lightning or power surges or knocked off desks or have coffee spilled on them or any of a hundred and one accidental disasters that affect computer systems generally
-- Karen Challinor, UK

Editor's choice

silicon.com news editor Steve Ranger flags up his picks on the site this week...

♦ Peter Cochrane's Blog: Generation X
♦ Q&A: Ashley Highfield, head of BBC's Future Media and Technology unit
♦ The Brampton Factor: Chinese whispers

Vista outrage!
Vista: Users do want it, apparently...

After using Vista Ultimate for four months, I got fed up with the slow and unstable OS, plus the dusty scanner and webcam staring accusingly at me, unused because of no driver support.
-- Anthony Hunt, Kent

SME growth spurt?
SMEs just want to grow

Complicated is not the word! I have to spend £800 per year on an accountant to process my year end because the forms etc. are just so complicated.

That is £800 that could be put to much better use.
-- Richard Davies, North Yorkshire

Not true of freelance businesses:

Some freelance businesses may want to grow but most want to remain as agile one or two person businesses.

Most of these freelance businesses simply want an end to government interference and to pointless restrictions on their work; they want to be allowed to return to what they do best - providing their expertise in the way which best serves their clients; without the continual threat of ever changing, poorly defined taxation.
-- Richard, UK

Growth is one thing & frequently bad for SMEs. Government help to cut red tape is another thing completely and shouldn't even be considered in the same survey.

Strip away the 95% crap that inhibits start ups and you would see many more start ups succeeding.
-- Roger Huffadine, Worcester

Please note, comments may be edited for clarity - but are not corrected for grammar, spelling, punctuation or style. The views expressed are not necessarily the views of silicon.com. You can write to silicon.com by posting a Reader Comment below, or emailing editorial@silicon.com.