I can speak to this. I just upgraded my older home PC from Windows NT 4.0 to Windows 2000 Professional. According to Microsoft's published requirements, my old hardware-a 230 MHz AMD chip with 160 MB of RAM--could just get by.
I wiped my old OS clean and installed Windows 2000. Well, the PC wouldn't even boot. I had to upgrade to a modern motherboard, with all-new RAM (I got 512 MB) and a faster CPU (I got a 1.3 MHz Celeron). Cost: $400, on top of the $160 new OS, which I had bought by mail. But I'm glad I upgraded. It's a modern, swift, stable OS that's a pleasure to use. Shutting down takes 11 seconds. So what if some software must be upgraded or patched? That's life in the PC age. I do think that the hardware upgrades and "gotchas" will prove so costly, in dollars and lost time, that your company would be better off donating the old stuff and getting all-new PCs. A modern OS deserves a modern graphics board, a fast system bus, USB support, and other amenities. And at just $300 or so, a high-resolution 19-inch monitor can be put on everyone's desk. If your boss agrees to get new PCs, why not go straight to Windows XP? My other home PC is an XP, and it's way cool, with lots of small touches that make it ready for the future and a joy to use now. I can't seem to get PostScript fonts to be recognized by either PC, but I'm sure there's a trick. Check out the archived articles on the two OSs at Ziff-Davis's site, http://www.zdnet.com . [EMAIL PROTECTED] - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
