Home businesses and older computers?

[Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>]

Craig Cardimon wondered: <<How many of you would run your own home- 
based business using an older computer? By older I'm talking about a  
computer that is maxed out with 512 MB RAM, 1.20 GHz, and is XP Pro  
2002 SP3.>>

Unfortunately, you're mixing a bunch of different things here. For  
example, a computer that old is perfectly suitable for running Word  
2003 (haven't tested Word 2007 yet), but probably not Adobe Creative  
Suite. In terms of WinXP, I vastly prefer that to Vista. So I have an  
ancient backup computer with pretty much the configuration you  
describe, and a newer computer (also a backup) for the kids that dual- 
boots both XP and Vista. We mostly boot into Vista only to apply  
Windows updates and download new virus/antispyware/firewall updates. <g>

In fact, I use Macs almost exclusively, and update roughly every 3  
years or when the old computer starts slowing me down (a very  
subjective impression). I recently updated to a lovely new aluminum  
MacBook so I can run Windows under Parallels, and apart from a few  
glitches, am largely enjoying it greatly. Over the holidays, I'm  
hoping to have time to transfer all my Word customizations to WinWord  
from MacWord and start retraining my fingers.

Don't forget that home office expenses count as tax deductions, so  
upgrading the computer every few years doesn't cost nearly as much  
(after taxes) as it does for a home computer not used for business.  
That should reduce the disincentive to upgrade. In addition, January  
is a great time to replace an old computer, since many people will be  
buying brand-new computers as holiday gifts to themselves or their  
family, and disposing of their old (but still high-powered) computer  
for next to nothing. Except for my primary business computer, I've  
bought almost all of my computers this way, and saved hundreds of  
dollars each time.

--------------------------------------------------------
Geoff Hart (www.geoff-hart.com)
ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca / geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com
--------------------------------------------------------
***Now available***  _Effective onscreen editing_
(http://www.geoff-hart.com/books/eoe/onscreen-book.htm)

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