I started ca. 1981 with a DOS 3.5 AT machine. It was still better than anything at the office when I let it go, but a transfer about 7 years after I got it forced an upgrade to a "Windows capable" machine running Win3.11 WG. About 2 years later I was forced to a Win95 machine because the existing machine (#3) couldn't take enough RAM to handle some rather large PostScript files I needed to process. That machine took an upgrade to Win98, eventually to Win98SP2 or SP3 (my memory fails).

An upgrade to WinXP on a new machine (#4) followed after about 5 years due to "discontinued support" on Win98. At that time, Lin went to a Win2K machine (her third – that I bought) at the request of a publisher she was doing contract work for.

The WinXP (on my same machine) was replaced with Vista when several Office programs started "losing features" due to obsolescence (Operating System security patches interfered with older Office program functions - but most people don't use that many Office functions?)

My current Vista machine is about 5 years old, and still runs adequately (with only RAM & HD upgrades and a graphics card replacement – twice) and should be good for several more years if I wanted; but the better security features in Win7 – and staying compatible with "her" new Win7 (her 6th on my bill) – may force something new fairly soon.

All of the above of course were desktops.

I've had, so far, five laptops, only one of which has survived for more than two years of very low usage. The best (last) one so far was used intermittently and rarely for about three years, before it got patched in (with external monitor, mouse, and keyboard) as a temporary replacement for Lin's desktop that went toes-up; but the display panel failed after being on 24/7 for a little less than 2 months.

When her #4 (since she started making me buy them for her) failed, we got her a "no-name" Vista machine (from Ribbit) that I've managed to get running again (her #5). The seller provided unquestioning "service with a smile" and never charged us when we had to take it in – but they never fixed anything either. (Number 5 was the one temporarily replaced by the laptop) She now has a Lenovo Win7 that she seems to be learning how to stumble along with; but all the chrome and foxtails and go-fast stripes are somewhat of an irritation rather than a help.

We're currently attempting to use the Ribbit that I got back online as a "dedicated" machine to transcribe VHS movies to DVD. (Anybody got about 4,000 hours to sit & watch old movies copy?)

My experience has been that a decent desktop computer will last about as long as the second or third hard drive, with my usage – so I do make document backups very regularly! (I think one of the early ones may have had its 4th HD in it, but drives are better now(?) and when 30MB was as big as you could get some of those may have been additions rather than replacements, in the days before external drives were easy. Recollection is that for a while one of my early desktops had four internal HDs in it for a while, until I could get a whopppin' big (for then) 120 MB HD for it.

Since ca. 1992, the two of us have had 10 total desktop computers (4 mine and 6 hers), running 24/7, 2 at a time, if someone wants to calculate an average.

I've had great success and satisfaction with MPC (formerly Micron, after it was originally Weiss) and would recommend them but they went bankrupt about 3 months after I bought my last one from them about 5 years ago. Obviously, I haven't required any mfr support on the current machine, since there wasn't any to be had; and I didn't find out the company no longer existed until about 6 months ago.

Leading major builders in the US are Dell, Lenovo, and HP. I've found HP puts too much "junkware" on their machines for my taste, although I've only looked at a few machines. What I've seen of Dell has been better, and Lin's Lenovo is pretty clean. A very recent report was that Lenovo has equaled former-leader Dell's market share, but nobody is predicting which may move ahead in the popularity polls. I don't have enough real experience with any of them to make firm recommendations, though.

You may find better prices in other brands, and quality may (or may not) equal one of the major brands; but if possible you need to look at "customer satisfaction" with service and suppport on any you think are of interest – if you can find any reports on it. (Note that there are lots more surveys reported than there are that are helpful, especially for "independent" or off-brand models.)

John