Corinne wrote:
Wow, this group is totally awesome. I really did not think I would
get too many replies concerning the purchase of a new computer.

I have made photocopies of most of your replies, and now I really have
my homework cut out for me.

The reason I am planning to get a new computer is that mine is 8 years
old, works great, and I love it, but I am still running Windows 98.
Because Windows 98 is so old, Microsoft is no longer offering free
updates, which I am told, subjects me to viruses even though I have
Norton Anti-Virus.

Microsoft WILL continue critical updates for Win98.


I don't want to send anyone a virus, thus, my search for a new
computer.

Anti-virus programs are, in the main, indifferent as to what operating
system is in place.


I was told that my computer is not capable of adding Windows XP Home
Edition to it.

I need to find out the specifications as that person never saw my
computer, and if I could do that, I would be happy to spend appx.
$130 to buy that operating system. My friend said it is a waste of
money as a new computer would have that on it.

Your friend is wrong. Not all computers come with an operating system
installed. And of those that do, sometimes it is the wrong operating system.
For example, some manufacturers install a knock-off of a 40-year-old
operating system designed by a money-losing division of your local telephone
company whose main architects believed the DOS Command-Line was not arcane
enough.


I wish I were more computer illiterate, but such is life.

I once read about a lady in New York who had a plan. She saved up little
chores around her apartment, then invited a male acquantance who lived in
the building for a trade: fix-its for dinner.

She thought: "He can put up a towel rack and it won't fall down - a miracle
worker. All I have to do is throw a couple more potatoes in the pot. Heckofa
deal."

He thought: "For the right kind of thirty-cent bolt, I get a homemade
rack-of-lamb dinner. She's a miracle worker. I'm way ahead."

After dinner, they had sex.