In article , John Rumm
wrote:
John Cartmell wrote:

Avoid Microsoft. Their OSs are designed to make you have to upgrade at
too-short intervals. I'm using a 10+ year old computer. It has had a new
processor, new hard drives, more memory and OS upgrades. I've added the
means to allow networking, USB, &c. But in that time you'll have
purchased 4-6 new Windows machines at far greater expense. I'm limited by
speed (though it went far faster than the equivalent Windows machines
when new and when it had a new processor added) and by colours/resolution
(32 thousand colours is its maximum at a reasonable resolution). But it
still runs all the software of the last 10 years. Of course I now have an
upgrade - but that also runs all the old software even if some has to be
done through a form of emulation - and the two will happily run in
parallel. I have no expectation of the old machine being pensioned off
for another 3-5 years (or more). That may be exceptional; but your
expectation of PCs is exceptionally bad.

You are not really comparing like with like. Your old system is no longer
leading edge. If you thrust software on it that required 10 times the CPU
performance to even work, it would not hack it at anything approaching a
suitable speed. That was what Grunff was attempting to maintain.

I know what my system will and will not do. If I wanted to play the latest
games I'd buy a games machine. What is *not* happening here - but does happen
with Windows machines - is the pernicious step of new applications (or
essential updates) being made available only for the new OS even where they
don't need the 'power' of the new OS. That's the ratchet that forces users to
buy new machines - and where they then find that old software doesn't work and
has to be re-purchased.

I still use a 10 year old platform for email and other tasks. It does them
as well as it ever did and never suffers problems with the usual Wintel
malware but I can hardly claim it is in any way comparable to modern
hardware performance wise in spite of having a hugely efficient multi
tasking OS.

My hardware/software is comparable to 'modern' performance except in clearly
defined ways (speed/resolution). It makes working in parallel with new
machines easy and transitions comfortable. At the moment I'm switching between
4 machines with peer-to-peer networking, using the same monitor/keyboard/mouse
and moving applications and day-to-day working over to a beta status computer;
if I encounter problems I can slip back to the old machine at a second's
notice.

--
John Cartmell john@ followed by finnybank.com 0845 006 8822
Qercus magazine FAX +44 (0)8700-519-527 www.finnybank.com
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