Sounds like you are trying harder to avoid windows then the effort you would put forth to deal with the odd off bug with it. If this is idealistic did you forget that DOS is from microsoft also? If its old hardware its time to save money. If you just don't like windows(I am not big fan myself) sometimes you have to bite the bullet and deal with it, I hate taxes just like anyone else still pay them though.
I have cnc plotter cutters at work that run 24/7 with no problems in a xp based software, the only problems we get are the ones from the software that the machine uses not xp. At home XP gives me no problems other then a rare problem with explorer which I don't use to browse anyway.
chris |