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I bought a Durabook several months ago to replace my last Dell that took an unexpected dirt nap. Someone on this site had recommended them, and I've been very happy with it. It comes with a serial port and I think you can still get XP.
We are a MS partner and they're going to stop selling XP retail in '08 and wholesale in '10. Support ends in '14 I think. So, ya got a coupla years to get all you can and 7 years of support. Suppose they'll be into Vista R5 by then, or something that looks and acts (as in 'works') like XP? John C. (Not Garand)
When I was young, I was Liberal. As I aged and wised up, I became Conservative. Now that I'm old, I have settled on Curmudgeon.
I've been buying off lease IBM T41 & T42 Thinkpads w/XP on Ebay for some clients. It's not uncommon to find T models with some warranty remaining. One of the best built notebook series ever made, almost as durable as a 2564 set. I'm told Lenovo is bringing back XP, so we'll be able to get XP one new Thinkpads again.
Also: Dell Vostro laptops from the Dell SMB website have XP and do a good job for almost the same money. Lots of discounts are advertised for certain models.
Digression: Don't care what MS says, Vista is simply hostile to applications, drivers and hardware not specifically setup for it. IMO, XP will be around and supported for years, there's way too much of an embedded software/application base that can't move to Vista.
Those of us who program phone and/or alarm system are quite familiar with the need to keep an old laptop PC or two around to support the legacy stuff.
Speaking of legacy, recently saw a fully functional OS/2 based POS system at a client site. The banking and financial sector still has quite few OS/2 systems today, I'm told. And I still see a DOS based system from time to time.
I'd have to agree to the legacy of Windows software. Most POS systems that are out there run Windows NT and while some are migrating they are going to 2K and XP Pro...not to Vista. The last laptop I purchased I removed the original HD and replaced it with a Ghost of my previous HD. Several of the markets Voice mails are going to Linux but most still run on anything but Vista.
The more CG gets his hands on the "Telecommunication System" the more it will be driven by the software "they" prefer and that will be Vista.
OS/2 was almost bulletproof. I ran it for years and it almost never crashed. There's a DOS based application I wrote 20 years ago (dBase IV) that's still in use at 2 or 3 locations that I know of.
Custom, single use pc's - if you've got something that works, why screw with it?
Sam
"Where are we going and why are we in this hand basket?"
John C. (Not Garand)
