On Thu, 14 Jan 2010 09:15:09 -0500, "Karl Townsend"
wrote:

My momma called and wants a new computer. She's an octogenarian and don't
like new fangled ways of doing the same thing. That means I should stay with
the operating system she knows - XP.

I went to Dell and they want an extra $150 to install XP on a windows 7
machine. She just needs a basic computer for internet, email, small
spreadsheet, and word. For myself I'd just get a used eBay. But I know momma
wants a new one. Any suggestions?

Me, I'd get her a new mid-line computer for her, with Windows 7. And
let her keep her old XP one next to it for a while (while it still
runs), so if she absolutely can not figure something out she has the
option.

Mid-line, because she won't have to get another new one if Quicken
or Internet Explorer starts demanding more processor or memory. Or
she decides to start scanning and Photoshopping all the old family
photos with names and dates for the future generations, and a cheap
machine can't churn them fast enough.

It really isn't that hard to switch OS's /in the same family/ as long
as you have the basic premise down solid. I got my mother upgraded
from MS-DOS 2.0 through 6.22 in three or four steps, then skipped a
Windows generation or two to Windows for Workgroups 3.11, then Win95,
Win98, WinME, WinXP... She didn't make it to Vista, but that wouldn't
have been all that bad.

My Mom's secret was to make cheat sheets, and Read The Friendly
Manual - what a concept! You know it will do what you want, you just
don't know how to tell it to. Find out how.

If it wasn't intuitive she went and found it in the Help Documents,
then printed it out and taped it to the side of the device... She
managed change quite nicely, once I showed here where to find the
answers to the questions. We have a large stack of well-thumbed
"Dummies Guide" books here.

-- Bruce --