"Flwrite" <lostwithout@home.com> wrote in message 
news:<gNHkb.14653$YO5.6929536@news3.news.adelphia.net>...

It even occurs to me to cancel old plans to upgrade this Dell from 384 to
768 MB sdram, which would have required throwing an old 128 MB card into the
trash to make room for one of the new 256 MB cards.  

Heh, I'm in the same situation - I really hate the idea of throwing
out RAM.  In my case it is a P II 400 built myself with 64/64/256 MB
sticks; it seems such a waste to toss out 64 MB.  I wish I could find
someone who has a BX board which uses the same type of RAM and give it
to them for free.

Anyway, the best upgrade I ever did for this efficient cruncher is to
replace Windows 98 with Windows 2000.  I briefly flirted with Linux
but I didn't feel comfortable with it.  With Win2K I get the familiar
utilitarian interface of 98 with the stability of NT.  This old
clunker can now open massive ACS images* that my brother's P 4 can't
handle, and runs three monitors.  I'll get another 5 years out of her,
easily.


* Like this one:
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/2003/11/image/a

Is your computer man enough?  Don't be a silicon wimp, select the full
resolution JPEG (8.62 MB)

;-)