On Jan 14, 3:15*pm, "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?

Karl

My mother is in the same position, and I was in the same position. In
my case, I had a compact XP Pro desktop with 512 ram and an 80 gig
hard drive, Upgrading to 2 gigs ram and installing a 400mb slave drive
solved all my problems. My mother has a six year old super compact
desktop with 512 ram and a built in graphic card. I told her to
install a stand alone graphic card and beef up the ram. Of course she
can't do this herself, but a local techie is on the job. I think that
in cases like this, there is no reason to replace the whole
computer.