What should I do with an old xp machine

[Hiram King Of Tyre]

I have an old Dell Vostro 200 which was hardly a high spec machine when we bought it. However, we do keep it in the back room and use it occasionally. What should we do with it next April when xp support ceases? What is the cost of upgrading to windoze 7? I do have an old knackered laptop with vista on it, could I use that licence for nowt?

Ant ideas?

[DimPrawn]

PC disposal experts (USA).

[amcdonald]

Run XBMC on it. attach storage and use it as a media server ?

[Hiram King Of Tyre]

Run XBMC on it. attach storage and use it as a media server ?

I'll need to work out what that is. You have given me an idea though in that we do need CCTV Could I use it for that?

[d000hg]

It's not going to stop working just because support ends.

[Hiram King Of Tyre]

It's not going to stop working just because support ends.

Agreed but xp may become highly vulnerable

[doodab]

Is linux an option for you? Or FreeBSD?

[Hiram King Of Tyre]

Is linux an option for you? Or FreeBSD?

I don't know. It's an old machine that we don't use too often. Do I need to be a boffin?

[DimPrawn]

I'm still using a toshiba laptop from 2000.

Support for that ended ages ago, but it still works and runs the tulipe I need.

Never goes on the web so wtf does it matter?

<ZG in "Windoze 98 for ever" mode>

Is it connected to the Internet or standalone?

Users of Aged Windows Face Risk | TechHive

The machine can be hacked remotely if it is internet facing due to the O/S being a Swiss Cheese of security issues.

[doodab]

I don't know. It's an old machine that we don't use too often. Do I need to be a boffin?

For linux, not so much these days but you will probably need to google to find answers to a lot of questions and some hardware might not work. For BSD, probably a bit.

What sort of spec is it? I have windows 7 running on a core 2 duo laptop & also used to have it on an old desktop, it's a lot less demanding than vista so you might find it's OK if you have say a dual core processor & 4 or 8GB RAM in there.