Y. Karp? Why Not!

Windows XP is on it's way out. As April 8 2014 looms closer, the lights are slowly being turned off, and the shutters drawn. I remember when I first upgraded from Windows 2000 to XP. The cartoonish, Fisher-Price-like interface made me cringe. But I didn't want to use the "Classic" view because then I'd be seen as old-fashioned. So I got used to the big, bright buttons, which, over the many, many years, have become warmly familiar. But all good things must come to an end...or must they? If you think that 13 years is too old for an operating system, perhaps Microsoft should take a leaf out of Chevrolet's book. As they say, " Old Chevys never die, they just go faster! ". Well, perhaps Microsoft and Chevy have something in common: I just noticed that my modern, touch-screen, in-car navigation system is running..wait for it...Windows CE, first released in 1996, now in it's 8th major iteration. That's 18 years, folks. As hard as Microsoft i...

In April 2014, Microsoft will cease support for Windows XP. This means that all computers running that ancient operating system will be sitting ducks for hackers who find and exploit security holes. Our home computer runs Windows XP. The entire whirring contraption should have been replaced about 4 years ago, but we're holding on. Now that Microsoft is giving up support for XP, I have been mulling my options. I could buy a copy of Windows 7 from eBay, assuming my desktop machine can handle it. (I'm guessing that Windows 8.1 is out of the question.) But why buy an OS when you can get one for free?  Ubuntu, a distribution of Linux, is built for the novice Linux user. It relies heavily on its well designed graphical user interface, and not so much on the command-line. That's great for those who are used to point-and-click Windows. I installed Ubuntu as a secondary operating system on my ageing PC (dual boot). Setting it up was easy and it took me only a short time to find ...