Windows Which OS for parents' computer?

My parents desperately need a faster computer, so I've decided to assemble some of my old bits for them. The system I've got lined up is a socket 754 Sempron 3000+ at 2.2 GHz with 1GB DDR400, a 40GB hard drive, and GeForce 6200LE. They essentially use the computer for internet, email, and figuring income taxes, so the demands aren't very substantial.

The only things I'm planning on buying are the hard drive and the operating system, and I've been having some trouble with the latter. Vista Home Standard and XP Home cost almost exactly the same, so I've been trying to decide which to get them. The computer will need to last them at least a few years, so I want to choose well for performance, stability, and compatibility. XP will obviously run more smoothly on this hardware, but their computer tends to accumulate crapware and I'm wondering if Vista will help stem the flow. A year from now, which of the two OS's will be running more smoothly? Is XP likely to remain well-supported and widely compatible for the next few years?

Which OS would you pick?

EDIT: Oh, and please don't suggest Ubuntu. I've considered that approach long and hard but it's not compatible with their tax software. Yes, it can technically be made to work with WINE or something similar. I want my dad to be able to install the software, not me. And even if I did feel like figuring that installation out every year (new version of the program every year) I live several hours from my parents and it's terribly inconvenient.

 

XP has full support until 2009, and then it is on extended support until 2014 I believe. With those specs its a tough choice.

If you want to avoid crapware you could install Linux, but if that's too confusing for them then just give them some education and install XP. There's no need for them to install crapware if they know that it is, well crap.

 

Of course the MIcrosoft latest OS... XP SP3

it will be a great buy! Faster, Cheaper and more compatible.

few things to lock down the PC.
[1] NOD32 Internet security
[2] Host File
[3] use OpenDNS
[4] Force them to use Gmail (or Yahoo Mail). can try filter "is:spam", action delete in gmail
[5] Strip down XP with XPLite.
[6] Disable unnecessary services.
[7] remove Network File Sharing

a bit more technical... i would also try to customize my user security policy by disabling simple file sharing.

these are all i could think of for now. cheers.

 

If the price is the same, why not get Vista?

 

just some experience with vista, old hardware and 1GB of ddr1 ram... can be problematic.

latest hardware and sufficient ram is mostly great with vista.

 

Linux or Vista

 

Ryanjleng: Of course, no matter what operating system I choose, I will do everything in my power to make it safe. However, educating them further seems to be a dead end, and switching their email services will cause me more of a headache than it's worth. I'll run their current addresses through Thunderbird and install AVG on the system. I will also not be wasting time stripping it down or disabling services as the benefits are insignificant, and I won't be disabling network sharing as they are behind a router and use a shared printer regularly.

dragontail: Indeed, why not? That's part of the reason I made this thread. I suspect there will be some benefit to running Vista, but I don't have any experience with Vista on that hardware so I'm not sure how it'll go.

I appreciate the input so far, but there hasn't really been a consensus. Just to clarify things a bit better, I know Vista won't run quite as well as XP and I know I can secure XP pretty well. However, I assume Vista will be a bit easier to secure and I'm wondering if that's worth the performance hit. Also, bear in mind that we aren't talking about a Pentium III. It may be a lowly single-core and might be a few years old, but it's not worthless. If you don't have personal experience running Vista on hardware of a similar level, please refrain from commenting on that aspect of the question.

 

it might a little, but so would a limited account on xp

yes.

iirc, vista home standard has a lot more stuff disabled than xp home. i'd go xp


also, try covertly switching their email to gmail. set up gmail to fetch their email over pop, use thunderbird to check their gmail. i'm going to try this with my dads email this week, hopefully he won't even know he's become a gmail user.

 

If your parents are anything like mine, the single best thing you can do is swap IE for Firefox... (or for that matter, *anything* that isn't IE...)

deleteing crapware/viruses/spyware/etc used to be a monthly or fortnightly job for me, a year ago i switched them to firefox* have not had a single problem since.

XP seems fine, i have yet to see any reason whatsoever to upgrade their PC...

*Firefox with adblock installed and all desktop IE icons look the same, but shortcuts changed to point to firefox instead, to this day they have yet to notice the browser changed, but did notice the sudden lack of anything going wrong with their PC**...

**In addition, i added active antivirus scanning to my smoothwall PC... it's logs suggest that it has prevented a lot of problems too on it's own, and fully justified the small power bill it uses in the process as well

 

I'm not sure gmail applies its spam filters to incoming POP mail, so I'm not sure you'll achieve anything by doing that.

I think I'm going to go with XP, because it's faster and $5 cheaper. If I had twice the RAM, I'd probably choose Vista, but DDR is crazy expensive and not worth it. Of course, I'm going to install my choice of programs including Firefox, but I don't think I'm going the limited account route. There's very little malware on their current computer - most of the junk is the stuff that came preinstalled (HP) and the nifty 'extras' installed quietly alongside the printer, scanner, camera, and whatever else. A limited account wouldn't change anything because they would have been on Administrator to install those programs anyway.

I will, however, pitch the idea of an X2 4000+, 2GB DDR2, and Vista because then I won't have to do anything with that computer for quite a long time. I might also suggest a bigger monitor, because they've got a 1024x768 15" LCD, and in my experience more screen space makes a computer feel faster.

Thanks for all the feedback, everyone.