It was perhaps six months ago I tossed it on some old hardware just for the heck of it and marveled over how well a Duron 900 ran in 384MB. An hour or so later stripped the machine for its parts. It still makes a guest OS in a virtual machine whenever a need might arise… and we don’t have to wrestle with license keys. About the same time a ‘Bondi Blue’ iMac G3 with the latest version of OSX that would run on a PowerPC also tested its curb appeal. No redeeming value.

As you say, XP with a GB of ram on a 2+Ghz processor is still viable but increasingly headache prone for me at any rate. With half the memory and processor required to run anti-virus, anti-malware, etc, there isn’t much left for the user among constant reminders to update this, that and the other thing on startup and shut down while asking for reboots in between. Perhaps a slight exaggeration, but if so not by much. I want to use the computer, not the other way around.

With the unleashing of VistaME I switched to Linux for personal desktop use. A couple XP boxes remain in house but unused and the laptop still runs it having QuickBooks installed. Which in roundabout fashion leads into the ‘big lie’ of Linux being how wonderfully it runs on old hardware. Sure, if we use an old version with a simplified desktop and rudimentary programs akin to Win98. Might even load the latest Firefox for those with above average patience and sufficient swap space. Time marches on.

For the record most of this is rambling out loud while trying to get my head around the possibility there being Windows98 hobbyist out there.