I don't understand why people expect computers to do things that they
would not expect of any other appliance.  Would you buy a new dishwasher
and be alarmed that it took the gilt off of your 200-year-old dishes?
Do you consider your CD player to be inadequate if it will not play
your 45 rpm records.

Computers and operating systems evolve for the good in some cases,
and for the worse in others.  If you have an application you want to
run, especially a small market item, you may just have to set up an
environment for it.  It is a big job to get a program to work on one
machine.  You can not expect a software author to spend their entire
life making sure that every hare-brained scheme (such as Windows XP)
works with their product that they sold to a small number of people.

If you need to have one computer running everything you can set it up
with multiple operating system options selected at boot time, but I
find this more trouble than it is worth.  Just buy a cheap old computer
that still works and dedicate it to the application.  Not much has
changed in PCs in the past five years, other than increases in processor
speeds, and you can get perfectly good computers that are a few years
old for almost nothing.  I like "executive" notebook computers, like
the Toshiba Tecra and the IBM ThinkPad, because you can find them that
have been used for little more than just carrying them around.

I have several computers running Windows 98SE, which I find to be
a workable compromise.  If I ever find an application that I can not
live without, and that will not run under Windows 98, I will consider
another computer with whatever operating system is required.  I
certainly hope that, if that is the case, it will not be another
microflaccid operating system that I need.

Spencer Chase
http://www.SpencersErolls.com/