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  2. PCTECH
  3. February 2006

Re: Garage sale pc

I bought XP business, just so it'd be like what I use.
I also use Open Office and Quicken. This is not Microsoft, and is not entirely seamless. However Open Office is free, and it purty derned good. Quicken is reasonable and very good. I especially like the way it reconciles a checking account.
In the situation you describe I'd rather spend the money for Quicken for the friend's business instead of Excel. Its possible that XP, Open Office, and Quicken will give her a complete suite that she'll love, for a lot less money?
XP also has a better method of separating the user's applications. If you have children on the machine, this could prove very useful. 

rob@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
We bought a garage sale PC with 98 on it. Problems with it is that it seems to lock up a bit. I guess I've gotten used to the stability of 2000 and XP (granted any rabid anti MS person will think that's an oxymoron). Another problem is that my wife would feel better using it than my work one. But she uses Excel alot to do books for her mom (who uses some version of Windows) and a friends ceramics shop. 

Kids want to play games on it.
I had a local downtown business do some work, like swap out a CD drive for a DVD drive. This business caters to home users. Pretty low key but did nice work in the past. 

I'm thinking of:
- having the local business "reload" the computer with 98 to get all the crap that the previous owner had on it off. Then I'd still have to get an office suite. 
- erasing the disk and loading linux on it.  And some open office stuff.
- Getting a new PC with the latest version of windows for the home user, and an office suite.
The thought process is -not- to use this as a learning machine for me to learn linux. 

What do you think?

Rob Berendt

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