Helping my friend with a computer

[Steve2000]

None of the major PC companies (Dell, HP, Lenovo) are going to sell you a PC with Windows XP.

If your friend wants a mainstream PC, she will probably have to go with Vista. What are her reservations about Vista? As someone who is not really a power-user, your friend will probably not really notice much of a difference with Vista.

With that said, my recommendation would be to go with an HP.

 

[IamJohn]

I know dell sells laptops (vostro) with XP, do they do the same with business type desktops?

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

If your friend wants a mainstream PC, she will probably have to go with Vista. What are her reservations about Vista? As someone who is not really a power-user, your friend will probably not really notice much of a difference with Vista.

she used Vista before, and she says it was really buggy, and most of her programs didn't like it.

I don't know, I never used Vista.

 

[IglooDame]

she used Vista before, and she says it was really buggy, and most of her programs didn't like it.

I don't know, I never used Vista.

www.newegg.com

Dell does sell PCs "downgraded" to XP Pro (but Vista OEM licenses), but if your friend doesn't want Dell either, it doesn't much matter.

 

[taper]

None of the major PC companies (Dell, HP, Lenovo) are going to sell you a PC with Windows XP.

If your friend wants a mainstream PC, she will probably have to go with Vista. What are her reservations about Vista? As someone who is not really a power-user, your friend will probably not really notice much of a difference with Vista.

With that said, my recommendation would be to go with an HP.

Ahh, no. Did you even look at those companies? All 3 of them will happily sell you a desktop with XP preloaded. The simple fact that people are willing to pay extra to keep using XP says a lot about Vista.

Yes, the Vostro business desktops have XP as an option.

 

[Steve2000]

Ahh, no. Did you even look at those companies? All 3 of them will happily sell you a desktop with XP preloaded. The simple fact that people are willing to pay extra to keep using XP says a lot about Vista.

Yes, the Vostro business desktops have XP as an option.

Sure did - always happy to be wrong, but the picture below is what I saw on HP's site, just as an example. But I went back to check again - to get a PC with Vista you have to select "Small and Medium Business," instead of "Home and Home Office"

So for the OP: If your friend wants XP that might be where you need to look on these PC manufacturer sites.

 

[taper]

Well, here's what I found with a few minutes searching.
HP, and Lenovo. Note that I didn't check if these are suitable for the OP, just that XP is available.

 

[Zelig]

The simple fact that people are willing to pay extra to keep using XP says a lot about Vista.

No it doesn't, it just tells you people don't like change. Adoption rates for Vista are better than they were for XP.

Are you seriously recommending Vista for this? The OP is looking for a low cost, low end computer for very basic tasks. Vista is absolutely the wrong choice. XP is fine, but I would take a look at a user friendly version of Linux, like Ubuntu. I know it sounds scary, but if you can use Windows, you can use Ubuntu. It is very easy, and better in many ways. You can use Pidgen for IM(using your existing account of all the major chat programs), Amarok or Rhythm Box for music, and vlc for video. Ubuntu also has very good multimedia support. Best of all just about everything you'll ever need is free, and has very low system requirements when compared to any version of Windows. Feel free to PM me if you want more info.

Vista is not the wrong choice, it's a clearly better OS than XP.

While I'd also be putting Linux on a low cost non-gaming computer, I've found the extra time spend by non tech-savvy people figuring Linux out isn't worth the $100 savings over Windows.

she used Vista before, and she says it was really buggy, and most of her programs didn't like it.

I don't know, I never used Vista.

It's not buggy, if her programs don't work with Vista, either she's using the wrong programs, or she shouldn't be getting a new computer.

 

[kuukkeli]

Vista is not the wrong choice, it's a clearly better OS than XP.

I don't say you're wrong (there's a chance though) but I haven't found any reason to upgrade my XP yet.

 

[Zelig]

I don't say you're wrong (there's a chance though) but I haven't found any reason to upgrade my XP yet.

And happily, I never recommend for people to upgrade from XP to Vista on their current rigs, it's just buying XP that's a bad idea.