h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I agree wholeheartedly!! Why should I throw out that old amiga and the 286 and the 386 and the 486 and the wee laptop and all the other bits and pieces that are cluttering up our house? Does it really matter that we can't get into the hall cupboard?? As long as all these old faithful computers have a nice dry home to live out the last of their days!

I think your post is a valid one, many of the older computers can still can serve a purpose in anyone's house provided they can live with shortcomings of the advances in software hardware requirements. I think what people need to do is to rationalize the expense of a new computer and what their needs are. You dont need a 1.8Mhz computer to do word processing(or anything else I can think of at the moment) as you mentioned, but how many people can or are rational when they have been brainwashed by the computer industry? I think a little education on the publics part would go a long way. But that's just the hardware side of things... software with every new version and type keeps gobbling up more and more space, needs faster and faster machines with more and more memory... its almost a vicious circle.