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A few readers had alternate ideas, and some reported happy experiences with Vista:

Mike Clark writes: Last December, I too sat with my Dell 8200 pondering the digital "fun time" passing me by because my machine couldn't cut it. I splurged a little and ended up with a Dell Dimension 9200, 2 GB RAM, 512 MB graphics card, 250 GB RAID 1 hard drive, dual TV tuner, 20-inch flat panel monitor, and I installed Vista Ultimate. It was surprisingly affordable. And for me, it's an incredible upgrade.

For the first time ever, I can play MMORPGs at high resolutions with sound, keep up with the crowd and enjoy the immersive effects. And that's only the beginning. With Vista Ultimate (which I like a lot), I get Media Center. My computer is now my DVR, and I can burn a program to CD to enjoy on other TVs in the house or at the cottage. I've got Vista's speech recognition, which I'm learning to use to relieve some of the stress on my hands, and I'm learning a foreign language. I haven't tackled movie editing yet, but it's only time before I do. I'm also learning how to stream my Media Center content to other computers in the house and to wherever I may be.

Don Frankenfeld writes: I have used mostly Apples since 1984, and have watched as Apple's once-huge advantage has nearly disappeared, mostly because Bill Gates has incorporated Steve Jobs's innovations. The Apple and PC platforms have converged to the point that there is not much practical difference. (Even pre-loaded PC craplets are also pre-loaded on Apples; including an annoying road test of Microsoft Office.) Apple still leads in terms of design, but their product quality is good but not great, and their support is downright awful. (I am on my fourth round of AppleCare phone calls which have not cured my new iMac's propensity to crash about half an hour after it has been booted.)

A weak point for Apple is the lack of specialized software. A strong point is that an Apple can run both platforms. For me, having invested thousands of dollars over the years in Apple software, the Intel Apple's dual nature provides an avenue for a gradual switch in usage – ironically, from Apple to PC. Since you are already on the PC platform, my advice is to stick with it.

Tom Ferrell writes: Before getting that new PC I would do the following:

Back up all of your documents, videos, digital photos and everything you want to keep. Put them on DVDs -- or better yet, buy a cheap small external hard drive or a network drive and copy them to it. The little external hard drive will be useful in the future for backups.

Optional: Max out the RAM on the old PC. RAM is very cheap now compared to how much it cost in 2002. The hard drive and the memory will cost you a hundred bucks or so, if you are diligent.

Reformat your old hard drive. Reload Windows. Do all of the Windows updates. Reload all of your essential programs except for virus protection. Run MSCONFIG and minimize what you are loading on startup. Move your documents back in a more organized fashion.

Now see how that old machine runs. My guess is it will seem like a new, fast machine to you.

I was happy to see that some folks shared my fond memories of IBM's ancient Portable PC, and its apparently indestructible blue bag. I took my IBM bag to the beach two weeks ago, about the 10,000th time it's been overstuffed with books and clothes and miscellaneous gear. Of course it came through without a complaint. Forget outliving the machine it once contained – I have no doubt this bag will outlive me.

Marj Remland writes: I was in charge of budget consolidation at a major division of AT&T and we had two of those portable IBM PCs in the mid-1980s. It did allow us to do some work at home, and I used to consolidate huge financials in Lotus on that machine. The calculation was so slow and the spreadsheet so big it took 25 minutes to run the consolidation. (It took about 20 minutes on the desktops we had in the office. Definitely not the good old days.) Wonder what happened to the two that my division had, along with the 5-1/2 inch floppies.

Tom Glaab writes: Gotta love that blue IBM bag. I still have mine in a closet (and the PC Luggable is down in the garage, even though it hasn't worked for a decade). The computer was mandatory at the Virginia Tech College of Engineering in 1986, and after the novelty of dragging the beast home over break wore off, the blue bag continued to make the trip -- filled with laundry.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118953892743724082.html?mod=yahoo_hs&ru=yahoo

Best,

Kurt