Re: How to make Windows XP last for the next seven years

On Jan 23, 6:09 pm, El Castor <No_...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
.. . .

I really don't understand all the anti-Vista paranoia. Vista is
working fine for me, and has been for more than a year. Granted, for
an old machine that is just limping along with XP, Vista would not be
a good choice, but for a new faster computer there is nothing about
Vista to fear -- and it's more secure than XP. My current computer
boots in under a minute, hibernates well, runs everything I throw at
it, and has a great looking interface.

The idea that someone who is connected to the Internet should keep XP
for 7 years seems nuts to me. XP is on it's last legs, and after
Microsoft quits supporting it, what happens when the crooks find a
flaw -- either in the OS itself, or a client running on top of it? In
any event, Windows 7 will be out shortly and the beta can be
downloaded right now.

I have several XP computers and no intention of getting new ones since
they all work great. I might wind up keeping them for 10 years or
more, I dunno. I'll certainly keep them until I'm forced to change for
some reason. If I eventually run into a problem with malware, I'll
deal with it then, but I'm not going to buy new ones now simply based
on the possibility that I might have a problem in the future. I think
computers have become a lot like refrigerators and washing machines.
There's no reason to run out and get the latest and greatest just
because the one you have is old.

I know two people with old (2000?) XP machines. I'm sure they were OK
new, but 250 Megs of RAM doesn't cut it anymore. It takes 6 - 10
minutes for those pieces of crap to boot up, and even then they don't
dare actually use them for anything. They haven't a clue, but it's
obviously too little RAM for today's security software, combined with
a clunky processor, and probably a hundred pieces of spyware competing
with each other to see which one is going to steal their credit card
number first. Sure they could be fixed, but I have had it with fixing
other people's computers. If they paid some Geek Squad guy to do it,
they might as well buy some dual core refurb or out of box deal for
$300 - $400. In any event, they have seven or eight year old drives.
Those things are death waiting to happen. The average person does not
know how to identify a bad drive, buy a new one that's compatible with
their computer, change it out, reinstall the OS, reinstall the
software, and restore the backups -- if they have any. You may not,
but they need new computers.

BTW -- I used to be in the networking business. My first computer was
a Commodore 64. The last pre-assembled computer that I bought (other
than this one) was a used IBM PC that I put a 10 Meg full height drive
in and turned it into the latest thing, an IBM XT. After that I always
bought the case and components and assembled it myself. It was cheaper
and I got what I wanted. It doesn't make sense to do that anymore. You
can buy an out of box or sale machine for much less than it would cost
to assemble. I saw a useable dual core Dell for sale a week or two ago
for $299! For most people, every 5 years or so, that's the way to go.

It all depends on the individual and my situation is unique in some
ways, but the computer I'm currently using has has a Pentium 4, 3.4
Ghz, single-core, Prescott processor, with 2 GB of RAM. With the fans
I have in the cabinet, it runs cool and quiet and I don't have to
worry a lot about dog hair plugging up the vents. It has an 80-GB, C-
Drive and a 500-GB, internal, D-drive with all my music and pictures
on it and some Ghost backups of my C-Drive, etc. I have an XP boot
disc for it and a Yamaha DP-U50 external sound card connected to it
along with 2 printers and a Logitech Wireless DJ system and it's
networked to two other computers in my house. I probably have about 2
dozen pieces of software loaded up on it, all of them working fine.

In looking on the internet, I can see where CompUSA has a new computer
(Vista) for $399.96, for instance. It comes with a Pentium 2-GHz,
(Dual Core) E2180. Mine processor runs at 3.4 Ghz. It has 2 GB of
memory and so does mine. It only comes with one hard drive, so I'm
going to have to buy another one. It probably doesn't come with a
stand-alone, OS boot disc. So, I'm going to have to go to the trouble
of building my own and getting on the internet and download all the
motherboard drivers and check for updates for the BIOS, for instance.

There's a good chance that I'll have trouble with the drivers for my
printers and my wireless DJ system. I would be very surprised if Vista
will work with my external Yamaha sound card which sold for about $250
new as I recall. In addition, how many of the two-dozen software
packages that I have will run on a new OS? I'm sure I'll have problems
with some of them, if not most of them. I doubt if my Symantec Ghost
software will work with Vista, for instance. Then I'm going to have to
setup my network again. The bottom line is that switching over would
be a lot of work, filled with a lot of pitfalls and would undoubtedly
cost me a lot of money beyond just the cost of the computer and when I
got done, I doubt if my new computer would be as good as the one I
have now.
.

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