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Just checked Wintergreen. They’re not manufacturers but parts vendors: http://www.wintergreensys.com/

Website says Copyright 2010. Possibly you started with a barebone kit from them.

I write my keys in fine black Sharpie marker on all my disks, besides having them on the disk sleeve. Everything I use for emergencies is NOT on my computer, but in a physical file drawer.

But typewriters didn’t drive us so crazy with software, OS’s and constant breakdowns. A working typewriters could last many years trouble-free with an occasional oiling here, cleaning the keys, and and new cartridges. The biggest jump was from manual to electric, but even so, you could use it for many years. When I gave away my electric to an elderly friend, it was as functional as the day I had bought it.

A computer is already full of garbage and bugs the minute you buy it and it’s a constant uphill struggle. Otherwise these forums would not be here. :D:The failure of one part, like a blown PSU, can sometimes throw your entire investment out the window. Computers are now disposable items.

Are you also aware that John Updike and several other notable writers still use a combination of typewriters and handwriting? Knowing word-processing sometimes has little to do with knowing how to write.

On the other hand, I repair and build computers, and I never learned touch-typing. Everything I write requires correction and editing before I hit “Submit.”

You’ve missed my original post, I think. I repair computers, millions of people earn money in ever field of computing, but that doesn’t change the issue of the rapid obsolescence that we discussed.

“How many ordinary people had typewriters in their homes at one time? Approximately none, unless there was a significant reason for it..”

Are you kidding or just very young? Millions upon millions of typewriters were produced between 1870 and maybe 1980, first manual, then electric. I first learned typing in the 7th grade, at age 12. What do you think I had in college 40 years ago? We were required to type our papers the same way that kids today are required to own a laptop in college.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typewriter

And compact often.

If you still want animated icons, try Thunderbird 2.0023 with the Mail Tagger add-on. Don’t think it’s compat with TB 3, but 2.0023 is fine for me.

Didn’t know this topic was still alive.

Gwyn Kemp-Philp: How much is 1500 Brit pounds in dollars? I think I paid $1300 for my first one in 1996, but I was also making a lot more money in 1996 than today.

I’m not recommending we go back to Win 95 or 98, very unstable OS’s, or 512 GB RAM. And 95 couldn’t handle today’s internet. My point was more about being forced to upgrade when you don’t have a need for it.

Depends on what you’re doing, Gwyn. One of my RAM sticks went bad recently, and I found that 2 GB RAM makes absolutely no difference from the 3 GB I had before. :p Hmmm….

Since my first post on this thread, I’ve visited a scrap metal yard, and brought bags full of electrical wires, TV cable, pipes and solid brass gardening nozzle, collected a few dollars. I do some contracting, so I had loads of this stuff in my closet.

Re: recycling of unusable parts at that yard: Computer parts count as steel, at only 6 cents/lb, too hard for most people to bring in anything meaningful. An entire comp that you paid $1300 for in 1996 fetches only $3 in scrap. .

For myself, I have IE8 installed (Windows XP Pro, SP3), but unless I encounter a very Firefox unfriendly site, I only use IE8 for MS Updates. For everything else, I use Firefox.

FlashBlock, NoScript, AdBlock Plus, and Web of Trust provide yet more help with Firerfox security and privacy. To protect my computer, I use Comodo Firewall, Comodo Defense Plus, and Comodo’s DNS Proxy Service (new in recent versions of their Firewall, and needs to be accepted as an opt-in feature). I also use Avast 5 Free, which has active Web Shields. I crank up the security settings on Comodo to the second-highest level, and in IE8, I have set my Internet Zone one notch more secure than the default for that Zone (thus allowing me to reduce the Trusted Zone to Medium Security). If I have any further doubts, I can scan with Malwarebytes Free or Super Antispyware, or submit a suspicious download to Virus Total’s web site for analysis.

The bottom line is, I do not feel the need to totally sandbox my browsers, nor to prevent cache and history items from being written to my hard drive.

A lot of good sense, and that follows my way of working pretty much. The worst malware I ever get is a tracking cookie, and rarely, because I also use Cookie Monster. Once we have pretty good security, no need to get TOO PARANOID.

My security stuff is set up, and it just works quietly without bothering me, like a good surveillance system. Sandboxing is just TOO paranoid for most of us. I keep my history for a convenient 2 weeks, keep cookies for trusted site, let FF fill out my forms.

This is beside the point of this thread, but you can use Help > Report Broken Web Site… feature in Firefox to try to get some assistance in fixing problem web sites. Obviously it’s only worth taking the time to report sites you really care about.

Yes, it’s relevant to the issue here. The OP originally mentioned uninstalling or disabling IE, and my point was that sometimes you need IE to view certain sites. And I reported directly to the site, but that’s not the point here either. Reporting doesn’t mean the site will be usable in FF any time soon.

Having IE is like having a man in your life; they’re not good for much, but every now and then they serve a very specific purpose.

I did another clean install (3.5 hours) and still getting errors.

My reason is, at the moment IE8 has been removed/disabled (only possible if using Win7)

Clean install of what? The OS? No OS should take 3.5 hours, unless you’re including a bunch of programs.

You can neither remove nor disable IE, so I believe you’re mistaken in that. IE is part of the system, and disabling isn’t necessary, you just don’t use it. You can remove one version and put in another, but not remove it entirely.

I’m passionate about FF, using it since its inception, have 30 add-ons, but Microsoft Updates (the manual ones) can be viewed and used ONLY in IE. So don’t play with trying to disable it.

A certain forum I use has no visible buttons for posting or replying unless I switch to IE. Some sites will have the wrong format, colors, missing buttons, overlapping text, etc. Yahoo absolutely will not accept Firefox cookies, not if I stand on my head and swing a dead chicken 3 times around my head. (Old Yiddish superstition.)

That said, I use IE to an absolute bare minimum and remove all my cookies each time.

You didn’t delete it, just hid it. The menu bar is a Windows function and exists on every program. When Ii need alot of space on my screen to create a large screenshot, I hide all the bars, then unhide them. Useful

I posted separately above about OO, not seeing this thread. Switched last month from Word 2000 to OO Writer. It takes a little learning, and I joined their forum. I made it look as much like my Word 2000 as possible, and I’m happy with it. Only problem so far was opening a doc I had made with a table. But I still have Word in my old comp for reading an occasional doc like that. All the others are fine.

As a whole, for those of us who used Word in a simple manner, it’s fine. Haven’t tried columns or some other complex formatting yet. But I never mastered columns in Word either.

I think the context menus are too busy, takes to long to find your command. Can these be edited by one of the plugins, the way I can edit my menus in Firefox? No, I can’t do any programming, must be done for me. :p

My warning about Google still stands. Beware of their mining your comp for info, a la Facebook. I don’t recommend a Google home page as you have to keep their cookies. This is all window dressing, doesn’t make the search engine any more efficient. When you get a chance check out your privacy setting at their site. After what happened with Street View last month, I wouldn’t trust them to even put a cookie on my computer. I’ve swiched to the anonymous proxy Scroogle.

You’re referring to your photo? Starting to look like Facebook. Will Google continue to mine our personal info too, as they have in the recent Street View scandal?

I don’t know anything about VBA or coding. The quote in the green box is not mine, might be from another thread. I was telling how satisfied I was, and you’re chiming in with all sorts of bad news unrelated to me.

I’m not having any problems with just creating docs and reading old docs, and I can read everything that people send me in Word format. Don’t know about the other Office apps, as I don’t use them.

As for security, I’m 64, and if OO ever becomes mainstream, which I doubt, I’m not going to worry about it. It’s not an investment in money or time. That was also said about Firefox, it’s become mainstream, and they’ve kept up very nicely with exploits.

My point was, for the majority of users who just type out letters and let their kids do their homework on it, it’s fine. But MSO always WAS overkill for us. I never used 7/8 of Word features, and the other apps not at all.