[TriLUG] OT: 64-bit computing advice

[Alan Porter]

>   My dad is asking me for advice on upgrading his P-III 750MHz Win98 
> desktop which is gradually grinding to a halt.

If the machine is gradually getting slower, and he is running the same 
apps he always has, then this is a good sign that it's time to 
re-install Windows 98.  Win98 machines tend to slow down over a period 
time.  Their registries fill up with garbage, various "enhancement" 
software (like browser plugins and system tray nonsense) get installed 
over time.  It's also very possible that he has some malware on the 
machine slowing it down.  My rule of thumb for Win98 is to reinstall 
every 6 to 9 months.  More aggressively if you browse indiscriminately.

That being said, I had great luck running Win98 under vmware when I 
bought my wife a new laptop.  I gave it to her with one very big string 
attached -- it must run Linux.  But all of her favorite stuff was on 
Win98.  So she ran vmware (actually copied the entire filesystem over 
from her old machine).  Over time, she realized that it was faster to 
run Firefox and Thunderbird natively in Linux.  She slowly weaned 
herself off of Windows (without much prodding on my part).

You notice that I don't mention "upgrading" to Windows XP.  For most 
people, who just run Quicken, a browser, email, TurboTax, spreadsheets, 
a word processor; Windows XP does not really buy you anything.  It 
handles networking a little better.  But if "old school" works for your 
dad, you might consider sticking with it.

Alan




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