Posted on 01/01/2002 4:11:47 PM PST by mercy
It sorta just snuck up on me. My old nanao monitor started winking at me, the ole gal felt like dropping by Comp USA and the next thing I know I'm rolling out the door with a new VAIO tower, a Samsung syncMaster flat screen LCD and a Canon bubble jet (there goes my buy American bluster).
I wasn't going to do it. Really. The thought of venturing past my garden path was too scary. The ole Dell XPS 200 and windows 95 was so .... well, familliar. I was afraid taking the leap would be just too painful. Boy was I wrong. Mama was in the mood to spend money and ya just can't go against that flow. Might not happen again in a coon's age.
Been hearing not so good things about Dell and the prices have been plunging so that one has to wonder about what they're putting in those things these days. Besides I wanted the security of just being able to walk the box into the service dept. if I had a prob and actually getting the thing back in days rather than weeks. The Sony seemed like a solid machine and not a conglomeration of god knows whose parts. The flat screen just knocked my eyes out. XP made my old OS look like a cheep 40's cartoon. So I jumped.
Despite my desire to get in a dig at Bill Gates whenever possible I'm going with 'internet exploder' for now. doesn't seem so bad and I'm not really missing Netscape ... yet. (I may pinch him a bit by dropping Office and going with Corel) I haven't had any trouble with XP whatsoever. I've deleted some junk they had in the box and I've added several programs. I'm all over the net and not a glitch. ON THE FIRST DAY. I can't believe I waited so long. I love the whole package. AND for some unknowable (for me) reason my internet connection is chunking along at twice the speed of before though my dialup connection is the same lame ole 28k and I already had a new top line modem in the ole box. Go figure.
So if any of y'all out there are like me and afraid of the change .... don't be. It's wonderful.
BTW, take a look at the new bookmarks before you do it.
So, how IS Windows XP?
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Favorites
I love XP, it very stable. Make sure and get the downloads for patches that fix a couple of things you probably have read about as far as people possibly being able to get into your computer. They are on the Microsoft site.
Oh, I have had Microsoft office since the 95 version and have no intention of changing. I also use Micro Soft Internet Explorer, have been for sometime and am happy with it also.
As for me, I'm also using a VAIO tower at home but under different circumstances. My husband's a US Navy submarine sonar tech, currently out on 6 month deployment, and he took our laptop with him. One of his shipmates needed a safe place to keep his desktop (couldn't keep it in the barracks) so he's letting me have full use of it, including Net access, while they're out to sea. While this has Win ME, I have been very pleased with the computer's performance and the speed of Net connection.
After you get those installed you might want to go to http://catchup.cnet.com/ and download and run that software for both security issues and for other software you may have already loaded. When you use catch-up you will be giving CNET info on your system but it’s probably very safe. I picked up a couple of security patches I missed on the computer which has Windows 98SE.
I’d also suggest you don’t depend on Windows XP for your firewall. I’m sure it’s fine just like Outlook Express and Passport are secure. All snide comments aside that firewall is going to be a major target for every hacker on the planet and they are going to find every hole that exists. Why make it easier for them. Right now both Norton and McAfee have big rebates on their software that includes both a firewall and anti-virus which are designed for XP. You can also get Zone Alarm free or the upgraded version both of which run on XP.
Lastly if you want to check out your system for some suggested changes you can go to http://www.pcpitstop.com/ and see what they suggest for improvements
I plugged in my Christmas digital camera, and it instantly recognized the new camera and opened a utility for viewing and saving the pictures. Pretty durned cool.
This Samsung operates on 25 watts which is amazing and 10 watts less than other LCD monitors.
Well, I'm no power user but I love it. It's gorgeous, but I know the new monitor has a lot to do with that. I'm already doing things with the system that I never did with '95. XP is more self explanitory and interesting too. I'm having fun finding out how to do all sorts of things. When I say gorgeous I'm talking about the look of it. So crisp and easy on the eyes. Reminds me of OSX for the Mack which did intrigue me I must say but not enough to spend more than twice the money.
But don't get me wrong -- I still use Netscape. (On my MAC!) If you like XP, you should see Mac OS X. What a beautiful thing.
Congratulations on your new machine. Have fun with it.
I cannot help it; other women my age are looking at drapes and curtains; I'm eyeballing RAM and gigabytes. Go figure.
I've been wondering about XP; I heard ME was BAD! And to me, Windows 98, which I have now, is quirky!
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