About 6 weeks ago I started using Firefox instead of IE 6. I do not want to "upgrade", Microsoft has a habit of leaving people in the lurch. In their quest for the latest and greatest they tend to forget people still use older hardware, and are happy with it. Software is to support what I use, not the other way around (something they really forgot with Vista).

It didn't help that UTube and other video outlets keep talking about support for my browser was being discontinued.

I still use IE6, but what is it that makes companies try to make people use the latest and greatest, even if they have to buy new hardware (maybe a new computer) to use it do you think?

Graphics is another issue. I don't see much improvements in modern games, but they require powerhouse cards to do it. This strikes me a laziness on the programmers part. For myself I've given up trying to keep up, it isn't worth it. If a function comes out that my computer just can't handle then maybe I'll consider an upgrade, till then I'll make do.

 

I guess it's mainly business.

I've stopped using IE for a while now, been using firefox for last 5 years and I find it very good. Though, I had to upgrade my windows live messenger otherwise it wouldn't sign in.

I tend to think that a first buyer has always the best deal, after that, the overhead is costly. A good reason why people would rather buy a new pc sometimes instead of upgrading, which usually also means renewing your software collection.

 

About 6 weeks ago I started using Firefox instead of IE 6. I do not want to "upgrade", Microsoft has a habit of leaving people in the lurch. In their quest for the latest and greatest they tend to forget people still use older hardware, and are happy with it. Software is to support what I use, not the other way around (something they really forgot with Vista).

Don't ever buy an Apple.

Graphics is another issue. I don't see much improvements in modern games, but they require powerhouse cards to do it. This strikes me a laziness on the programmers part. For myself I've given up trying to keep up, it isn't worth it. If a function comes out that my computer just can't handle then maybe I'll consider an upgrade, till then I'll make do.

The thing is computer games are designed to run on many different specs. A big part of gaming is finding out how much graphical bang you can get for your buck. If you check out some of the newer games with a $400 GPU you will see some magic. My bud has a gaming specific computer that literally gets 255 fps on all games. The graphics look almost real.

 

Observation about Window's OS's - I resystemed an old Dell that was (barely) able to run XP Pro with 256MB ram installed. It's happier with 512 now.

Got an Emachine for one of the kids (starting lawyer) with W7 installed. The minimum ram for that is 2G. It appears that the extra ram gets used to support the Aero Glass front end.

 

Yeah vista and 7 are super ram heavy. They don't use the hard drive for the paging file anymore, so at 1g, you are barely breaking even at idle.

I still love my Xp pro sp3 and won't change until it totally gets phased out, which will probably be a few more years.

IE 8 is really nice for the most part, the multi-tab is a godsend (which firefox has too now, of course, its the same platform). I disable toolbars and helpers and crap like that, I like low overhead operation. Same goes with windows, the more junk you have going on in your tray, the slower it will be. Its funny that there's all these programs made for stuff that windows already does, you just have to know where to look.