Actually, IE8 is the last version that works on XP. I also have Chrome available. Currently using MSE for anti-virus, but I hear that's getting a little long in the tooth.

And, of course, I have MS Office I can load, and I have various XP cd's to use to bring it up to current levels - the problem is getting the COA off it. I have software to do that, but I can't get it in. There's a problem with the existing install, so I'll work around that.

Nothing wrong with XP. Since I've found I don't use/need any of the whiz-bang stuff with either Vista or Win8, XP gets the job done.

Recently installed Libre Office, and like that a whole lot better.

I second the suggestion of Linux. My favorite flavor is ArchLinux. Nothing beats the absolute control of that distro. Installation leaves you with nothing but a prompt and an extremely basic environment. Everything else is installed at your request by package manager (or by hand).

I found my old Windows 3.1 install disks not too long ago. I think it should make this baby fly.

It turns out I might have a good use for it.

I've found a guy who suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder. He can't leave the house, has issues with space and touching, and has attempted suicide at least once. I visited him at his house (there are several other people living there, usually with one problem or another) and he's a fairly bright guy; just can't interact socially.

Someone broke in and trashed his computer, which he needs for email, form-filling and other interactions with various governmental agencies, and sometimes a little gaming. Naturally he has no money to buy another one.

I told him the computer would probably not be suitable for gaming (I don't waste my time with that, either, so I don't have any powerhouse 'puters laying around) but we could handle the rest OK.

So, I'll be beavering away this weekend getting it all up to snuff, loading software, and so on. Probably install it next week. He has super high speed wireless available (G? N?) so things should zip right along.

Now that I think of it, something like that is a very good use of older computers. The dirty little secret of computer manufacturers is that hardware sold several years ago is still fine for running most business applications, so replacement has slowed down a lot.

Of course, if businesses were willing to pay for their employees playing first person shooter games, streaming videos, and other general folderol, the market would still be robust. I suppose.

Suggestion: If you have an older computer or two laying around, it wouldn't hurt to find some non-profit who would be more than willing to take it off your hands and get it someone where it would do a world of good. Think of it as time off for good behavior in Purgatory.

You've never tried Gentoo, then (which is itself a bit less control-freak-y than Linux From Scratch.)

Mind, there are plenty of reasons to prefer Arch over Gentoo -- I run both on different systems, as well as a some Fedora and CentOS and [ick] Oracle Enterprise Linux at work -- but if for a minimal default and a do-it-yourself approach to things, Gentoo is the pinnacle before it ceases to be a distribution.

I actually have used Gentoo. The first ever Linux distro I used (circa 2003, I think...) was Gentoo, because I wanted to really get the feel for Linux and how everything worked. It took about a week to compile it on the ancient AMD K6 based system I was using it for at the time. (and it took me several tries just to get to that point, having had only extremely limited *nix experience)

Arch is a step back from the Gentoo level of control. It gives me almost as much control, but it's quite a bit less work from the user required to get it running and keep it running. I think it's in kind of a sweet spot that way.

I use Ubuntu when I set up systems for other people since it's very user-friendly.

Heh, that's drinking from the firehose. I moved to Gentoo around the same time because the upgrade from RedHat 7.x to 8.0 screwed up so many things that I decided to give up on binary distributions, but I'd been using Linux since the very end of 1993, back when downloading SLS floppies was the easiest way to install.

I'm inclined to agree that it's a sweet spot, and it has one of the best communities around it -- I run it on a number of older systems where the overhead of keeping Gentoo up to date would be too slow, and I've .

I've tried a variety of things on giveaway laptops, and haven't had much luck converting others to Linux. Ubuntu with the newer Unity build tends to play well for Mac users, while KDE (either Kubuntu or the Fedora KDE spin) tends to be an easier transition for Windows users. The Fedora XFCE spin seems to be the best option for really old laptops.

or get him a Mac Plus , I think I did more with that when I first started than I do with my stuff now !

and think how small MacPaint etc was.....

OK....I doubt a Mac Plus would run anything but AOL 1 so you could not even do simple emails......but then I am sure some are still using them....

I appreciate all the input (and when/if I load some xNIX, it's to practice getting around the system, writing scripts, etc. I really don't care much for applications - they're just ways of exercising the hardware, which is what I'm really interested in). But ...

The purpose of the thread was to emphasize the oldness of the computer installation; to wit: WinXP with no service packs installed. Have you ever seen one that virgin? And with various games that haven't been played in eleven years? Or that only had a modem?

At the end of the day, it has a 1 GHz Duron cpu and a mobo that allowed overclocking (it was apparently custom-built). As far as horsepower goes, it was able to play dvd's, Youtube videos, etc. with no stuttering or hesitation (once I got the wireless-G card installed).

So, he's happy. It'll never keep up with World of Warcraft or whatever the hot game(s) is/are these days, but I presume that'll come later.

This reminds me of a computer I was asked to work on a couple years ago. It was October 2010, and they showed me to a computer running Windows 95. 80486 processor, 16 MB of RAM, and a 512 MB hard drive. The thing ran like it was straight out of the box. Apparently they only used it for bookkeeping, and then only once a month or so.

They didn't really have any problems with it, just wanted me to check on it while I was there looking at another computer. They had told me they had this computer, and that it was older ("probably 6 or 7 years old"). I guess time flies.

I made some backups for them on floppies (only option available), and left them with the thing still running. As far as I know, they're still using it.

I had to take some screenshots, because it was just unbelievable. Here they are (not resized - they were, of course, running at 640x480). I felt that the only appropriate way to remove their information was in paint, badly.

http://imgur.com/a/ccBbN

Ouch. That hard drive is nearly full. They're gonna have problems with it pretty soon, because when Windows 95 runs out of swap space on the hard drive, it will come to a screeching halt and start whining like a teenager going to a family wedding.

Yeah ... probably an MFM drive. Good luck in finding one of them, although I did sell a pair of ST-225's a couple of weeks ago. 20 MB. Wow!.

I also unloaded a bunch of ESDI drives, but they were in the 300-600MB category.

I don't know if any of them worked. Wonder what these people are doing with them; the bidding was rather spirited.

Hmmm. I've got some old 486 processors and mobo's laying around. Strangely, people buy the processors, but they really get bidding when they're coupled with a working motherboard. Can there be that many museums around?

Edit:I remember now: it was three ST-225's.

Have you tried Linux Mint? It's basically Ubuntu with Gnome. The UI feels a lot like Windows Vista. The only downside is you can't upgrade it in place like you can with Ubuntu - you have to wipe away the OS and install the new version from scratch.

Wow! I thought I had a good one when I went to a client the other day and saw them still using Netscape Navigator.

sadly, they still have something like 4 million users who have DU accounts, and it generates over 70% of AOL's profit.

I have a feeling many of those user are actually deceased.