It is amazing how many computers wind up in the trash because they didn't
keep up with Microsoft products. In the auto industry, they called planned
obsolescence.

There is a reason the Vista doesn't work on your 5 year old computer. IT WAS
PLANNED that way. Bill Gates and his buddies want you to get rid of your old
boxes, and buy new ones.

This is a windows box. I share it with people that don't want to learn
anything new. I figured out that every time Windows updates, it gets a
little slower. I think that is part of the plan, too.

Older computers run just fine on new versions of Linux. My 1998 500mhz
Celeron, runs good on a 2007 version of Xandros. My workbench computer is a
1.6ghz AMD Sempron box. You would think it would work with Vista. It runs,
but is horribly slow, and none of the fancy video effects work. That is my
ubuntu box. My laptop came with Vista. I ran Vista in it because of warranty
issues, but the warranty is going to run out soon. I wanted to install
ubuntu, but ended up with Mandriva because of hardware issues.

I went to a coffee shop a few days ago with the Vista installation. It took
8 minutes to start up, and 5 minutes to shut down. The whole time I was
there, it was downloading updates. It took forever to load web pages and
download mail. That was the last straw. I went there today with Linux
installed, and it ran great.

Oh? In today's world, a 3-year-old computer is obsolete. Even IRS
guidelines for computer depreciation state 3 years.

With prudent shopping, one can buy a featureful new system for less
than US$200. One that I bought last week and will be arriving
tomorrow can be seen here (the sales continue ad infinitum):

<http://shop2.frys.com/product/5735192>

There is one error on that page: the Athlon CPU is 2.7GHz, not 1.7.
Going to HP's web site, it's stated that system debuted March 27,
2008, so it's current technology. My weekly supermarket food bill
is higher than that ($200).

There is absolutely nothing wrong buying a refurb system; I have
four other similar ones here and they're just as good as brand-new
and they run Ubuntu, Solaris, FreeBSD, etc. and they're all dual-
core systems and all were introduced new in 2008 and their average
cost was $220 each.

> [...]
> Older computers run just fine on new versions of Linux. My 1998
> 500mhz Celeron, runs good on a 2007 version of Xandros.

That's for sure! I have one Pentium Pro system, 200MHz, 128MB RAM,
30GB HD that runs Linux just fine. And another system I salvaged
from a dumpster is only 100MHz but runs an older RH release off a
SCSI HD. It's now out of service because I ran out of space.

Yes, there is planned obsolescence, but what about a lighter
and faster Linux ?
Now I am using Linux Mint, an Ubuntu derivative (which is not lighter and the
XFCE desktop was not very impressive), TinyME (managed finally to install on my
PC) and puppy Linux (which is amazingly fast, much, much faster than a freshly
installed Windows XP). I also installed Windows XP today to experiment on it
with some new browsers (some are quite impressive) and later with some viruses
in order to mess it up and then try to manually delete the virus files under
Windows and Linux.
One of my colleagues threw away a PC with a crashed Windows 98 and I am
running Damn Small Linux on it. I will also try Freedos with OpenGem on it.

That is why Green parties across the world have endorsed Linux. It keeps
computers out of landfills.

Did you know the Gates Foundation provide software (for computers rendered
obsolete by Microsoft) to Rotary so they can provide computers to Africa?
http://www.itschoolsafrica.org/content/view/64/13/

This is normal, I would do the same in his place. He is
investing in Microsoft,s future in Africa. As an African proverb says:
"Give a poor man a fish to eat and he will eat for one day; teach him
to catch fish and he will invite you to lunch."

This is normal, I would do the same in his place. He is
investing in Microsoft,s future in Africa. As an African proverb says:
"Give a poor man a fish to eat and he will eat for one day; teach him
to catch fish and he will invite you to lunch."

All the Linux distributions (including Ubuntu and all its
derivatives) that I tried except for Sabayon linux have decent hardware
requirements.

Unfortunately, even here in Romania many people blame the
hardware when there are problems, in fact, with the OS. Some even throw
away the computers or bring them to be serviced due to this reason.
Waste of money and materials !

One of my colleagues said he had "problems with the hard disk", although it
was only a crashed Windows installation.

Linux lasts on PCs until one gets fed up with it and installs
another Linux (my case) or until they throw away the hard disk.

Well, it looks like there is something that Greens and Conservatives
can agree on, though for different reasons. Linux saves people money
by keeping older machines usable for a longer period of time. This
increases the value of the initial investment that one makes in their
computer.