Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Texan in Calgary for a while
Posts: 1361

I will never upgrade to WinXP (not that I could if I wanted to). I'm afraid my Dell P2-450 won't make the cut.

Here's a good summary of many of the problems with WinXP. I'm glad I switched to the Mac as my primary home computer when I did. Now I just have to wait for my wife's Compaq laptop to die and I won't have to deal with MS at all.

I'm using Appleworks 6.2, which has a very good Word/Excel translator, and while not as feature-complete as MSO, it gets the job done. I've also been telling my friends not to upgrade to WinXP. My switch to the Mac has been pretty smooth so far; if it meets your needs, I suggest you take a look at it.

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James Hromadka
Old Friend

Registered: Mar 2001
Location:
Posts: 347

I'm looking forward to many of the features that I have heard are in Xp, but, like many of you, I don't plan on upgrading any time soon. I run Win98se and it's perfect for what I need. Not to mention that some of my software might not run on XP. Compatibility is much more important than upgrading to the newest OS.

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Chandler, AZ
Posts: 289

windoze ... yada yada yada ...

Its not about the hardware. Its not about the operating system. Its not about the application. Its about the data.

Sure a few years ago it was pretty simple -- "if you want to do gfx arts, get a Mac .. if you want to be a business person, get a PC, if you want to run a server, get a Unix box.." -- however, thats all changed.. everything can do everything.

For example, the gfx arts -- A few years back it was incredibly import to be precise in how something should be setup -- (ie, use Quark 3.1 for a Mac, use Type 1 fonts, if you use images, place CMYK 32bit TIFFs, any vector art should be saved as an Illustrator 6.0 EPS, etc..) -- now its as simple as "Send us a PDF, use our profile, your set" -- doesn't matter if they are Mac, Wintel, or Unix.. everything is transparent.

So as far as Joe Computer User is concerned, his Win98 or WinXP or Win2000 system can do everything he wants it to do. It can create documents, presentations, surf the web, play mp3s, record CDs, network with other systems, etc. So why upgrade? No reason to .. sure, a few years ago it would have been nice to upgrade to have a faster system, but not today .... anything above a 350mhz processor for MOST users is overkill -- sure its a wee-bit faster, but not enough to justify upgrading.

To truly kick-start the industry, there needs to be something new .. something that is more available .. Possibly a super-do-everything PDA or possibly a TabletPC might do the trick .. something that can provide desktop functionaility, anywhere.. But do people REALLY even want that? I highly doubt it. Sure there will be niche markets for these new innovative products, but for mass market appeal, there is no doubt that a larger and larger gap between system upgrades is inevitable, no matter what platform your promoting (Mac, PC or Linux) --

Maybe that will be better ... Instead of companies promoting features, they will promote more important things, like reliability and security. End users will learn their applications much better and be more productive with them. (maybe they can learn 10% of Microsoft Word's feature instead of just 5% ..)

Just something to think about.

Joe