I did buy a new PC for "away" use (my Mum's place). This came with XP, and is 5x the speed, however, I was less than impressed with the performance. I still had a few problems with MG casinos, although, once loaded, the games performed better.
I have been looking into upgrades for some time, and certainly prices are falling all the time. There is so much choice though that I can't make my mind up!
I should probably buy something decent, although more expensive, rather than buy cheap and find it out of date by next year.
I am annoyed that a fresh install, although necessary, gave significantly worse performance than my well aged, but well "modded" windows 98. There are several tweaks, not easily found, that can make considerable improvements to Windows 98. Microsoft now have a rather cheeky article encouraging users to play with 98 rather than put XP on an older PC, suggesting that many of the XP features can be inserted into 98.
I had not intended to use only that old MS VM, but it can be useful for testing to see if the new SUN Java is at fault. I have had JAVA errors in the past when we first had to start moving over from the VM - all down to the SUN product not being compatable with some of the less than standard functions in Explorer.
I have installed the Norton Firewall, often complained about, but I don't think this is an issue, other than possibly slowing down some processes due to virus scanning.
I have just got the old Microsoft "Power Toy" for old Windows versions that allow some of the clever tweaks. There are many more I need to put back in though.
One objection I have to XP is that it is so "managed" that you need permission to reconfigure the PC to any extent if you want to be able to access Microsoft updates and certain content on the web. These management tools often interfere with things they are not supposed to.
Vista may be worse, I have not heard any more about this infamous "fritz chip" that was going to end DIY tweaks and piracy forever, and was due with whatever came after XP.
My PC is also "last century", and I must have had my money's worth, but it aint dead yet, and it can still serve a useful purpose as a server to my router when I get (eventually) an upgrade.
I have thought of adding my ATARI 800 to the network also, so I can calculate the expected value of next weeks bonus at Spin Palace while still playing in the All Slots tournament. I expect the answer just before the promotion closes on Tuesday
