Should I give PC away with XP or reinstall Win98?

Marty_J

hotkee wrote: »

Whats your problem - I make a remark which tries to say the pc is worthless, get rid of it means "throw it away, dont bother giving it to anyone or selling, bin it" where as the original poster was talking of giving it to someone.

Well if someone wants it, who are we to say otherwise?

I can just imagine the conversation: "someone on the internet says the computer is no good, so you can't have it".

Not everyone uses their computer for playing Crysis on.

beachbeth wrote: »

Im a she, not a he!

Sorry! I do read posts, just not usernames.

beachbeth

macman wrote: »

Tell him that it will run much faster if he invests maybe £20 to upgrade the RAM to 512MB (incidentally if you had done this yourself you might not have needed to order a new computer, XP cannot run effectively on 128MB as you were originally advised).

I will tell him about the RAM. Ive got some money to spend and wanted to buy a shiny new pc anyway. I also wanted a nice flat screen instead of my crt.:p

johncolescarr

Put in the extra RAM in for definite. I'm a big advocate of Linux and in particular Ubuntu but check with the user if they'd be happy to run Linux. Some programs do not run on Linux so if they use specialist software then Linux may not be suitable, or you may need to dual boot.

If the user is not bias to any Operating system and doesn't need specialist software I would offer them a dual boot system if you have enough hard drive space and the inclination! as you don't need to do all the maintenance in Linux. Contrary to popular belief, I think modern desktop Linux is much better suited to the casual user. However, if all their friends use Microsoft and they will not be comfortable sorting out problems for themselves by posting on forums then to be honest I'd stick XP on it.

If you are considering Linux, I'd recommend Ubuntu or Linux Mint (which is Ubuntu with all the propitiatory stuff installed so it plays video and audio out of the box). Go to their websites, download a live CD, burn it as a boot-able disc (and .iso file), stick it in your machine and give it a test drive without affecting anything on your PC. But first, stick the RAM in, it'l give your machine new life

LeeSouthEast

beachbeth wrote: »

But why should I bother when Im giving it away for nothing?They can pay £20 to do this if they want.

Apparently, his machine is so slow that he clicks to connect to the internet and then goes away for 15 minutes and makes cups of tea etc. Mine will seem dead speedy in its present state anyway!

My point was with 128mb ram XP will not run, and Win98 is no longer a supported OS and therefore not suitable for connection to the internet. He (or you) however could get the machine back in usable condition for £20 or so. I appreciate you're giving it away, so more likely he would be forking out here.

Xubuntu would install (using the text installer) but would be unplesantly slow.

johncolescarr

beachbeth wrote: »

But why should I bother when Im giving it away for nothing?They can pay £20 to do this if they want.

Apparently, his machine is so slow that he clicks to connect to the internet and then goes away for 15 minutes and makes cups of tea etc. Mine will seem dead speedy in its present state anyway!

Didnt read this post, in that case, give the machine to them and tell them to read these posts! (or print them off if they wont be able to get online straight away!)

bigifsh

ok the guy is a novice pc user in his 50s. and your sugesting linux? come on...jsut give him windows he needs simpilicty. He wont stand a chance in linux.

beachbeth

LeeSouthEast wrote: »

My point was with 128mb ram XP will not run

But it runs for me at the moment! It isn't super fast but it runs fine! I'll pass your suggestions on to him. Ive no idea how good he is with computers - I would think if he's got an older pc than mine then he isn't that knowledgeable! But if I tell him the suggestions Ive had on here then its up to him if he tries any of them.

adouglasmhor

hotkee wrote: »

Whats your problem - I make a remark which tries to say the pc is worthless, get rid of it means "throw it away, dont bother giving it to anyone or selling, bin it" where as the original poster was talking of giving it to someone.

And it was explained why as well, it is better than the one the person who is being given it is using. Pay attention. If it works it is not worthless.

adouglasmhor

bigifsh wrote: »

ok the guy is a novice pc user in his 50s. and your sugesting linux? come on...jsut give him windows he needs simpilicty. He wont stand a chance in linux.

I think you are a bit behind the times with your opinion of linux, My gf accidently booted up my PC with a live disc of dream in it and managed to get on the internet and check her bank ballance and send me an email to tell me the screen looked funny, and she is the biggst technophobe ever. Gnome and KDE interfaces are up there with th GUI on vista and Mac nowadays, you never need to touch the terminal if you don't want to,

hotkee

adouglasmhor wrote: »

And it was explained why as well, it is better than the one the person who is being given it is using. Pay attention. If it works it is not worthless.

No thanks teacher!

If it works its not worthless - oh please get into the real world - if you give a pc which you think is not worth your while to someone else and ask for £20 then it is worthless.