24-03-2013, 11:45 AM
Just built a "new" machine with XP, and put Firefox 19.0.2 on it, along with AddBlock Plus. It's working absolutely perfectly, and is very quick and responsive. I have 16 tabs open, and it's taking a quarter of a GB of memory, which is OK.
I say "new" - it's an ancient Compaq Evo with 1GB RAM and a 2.5GHz P4 CPU. I've just installed XP and all the service packs, and it's got most of the updates from Microsoft. So far, everything is running very nicely, though I'll probably put another GB of RAM in, as the motherboard will accept up to 2GB. The fastest CPU this chipset will take is 3.06GHz, and these are available for around a tenner, but as this is a small-form-factor machine, it might be asking a bit much of the PSU. I have a 2.8GHz somewhere that might be a better bet.
The Intel 845G integrated graphics are fine for what I need; it's comfortably putting out 1920 by 1080 to match the new 22" Iiyama monitor I've just bought (amazingly cheap for the performance). This machine is for the workshop, so I don't need gaming performance. Playing youtube videos pushes the CPU usage up to 100%, but the video is relatively smooth - a faster CPU will help, and perhaps a graphics card upgrade might be worthwhile as well (would have to be a low profile card) - I'd get one with DVI so I can connect digitally to the new monitor (although I must admit that it's hard to see any issues with the analogue connection).
Anyway, if Firefox is 100% fine on such an old, low-spec machine (it's more than 10 years old!), then I don't see a problem. I also don't see why one should stick with 3.6 - the updates aren't coming out that much faster than before - it's just that they are being given major numbers rather than minor ones. That was a marketing decision, because Chrome did that. Bug fixes and updates are quite important for a web browser from a security point of view, and should be adopted. I'm not aware of any major problems that have been introduced since 3.6, but it's easy enough to roll back if needed.
As I might use this machine for web development, I'll probably install all the others. If I notice any significant differences then I'll report back...
Cheers,
Mark
PS: If anyone fancies a change from the default blue, silver or olive-green themes that come with XP, you might like to try Zune: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=75078 - it looks quite nice and modern.
I say "new" - it's an ancient Compaq Evo with 1GB RAM and a 2.5GHz P4 CPU. I've just installed XP and all the service packs, and it's got most of the updates from Microsoft. So far, everything is running very nicely, though I'll probably put another GB of RAM in, as the motherboard will accept up to 2GB. The fastest CPU this chipset will take is 3.06GHz, and these are available for around a tenner, but as this is a small-form-factor machine, it might be asking a bit much of the PSU. I have a 2.8GHz somewhere that might be a better bet.
The Intel 845G integrated graphics are fine for what I need; it's comfortably putting out 1920 by 1080 to match the new 22" Iiyama monitor I've just bought (amazingly cheap for the performance). This machine is for the workshop, so I don't need gaming performance. Playing youtube videos pushes the CPU usage up to 100%, but the video is relatively smooth - a faster CPU will help, and perhaps a graphics card upgrade might be worthwhile as well (would have to be a low profile card) - I'd get one with DVI so I can connect digitally to the new monitor (although I must admit that it's hard to see any issues with the analogue connection).
Anyway, if Firefox is 100% fine on such an old, low-spec machine (it's more than 10 years old!), then I don't see a problem. I also don't see why one should stick with 3.6 - the updates aren't coming out that much faster than before - it's just that they are being given major numbers rather than minor ones. That was a marketing decision, because Chrome did that. Bug fixes and updates are quite important for a web browser from a security point of view, and should be adopted. I'm not aware of any major problems that have been introduced since 3.6, but it's easy enough to roll back if needed.
As I might use this machine for web development, I'll probably install all the others. If I notice any significant differences then I'll report back...
Cheers,
Mark
PS: If anyone fancies a change from the default blue, silver or olive-green themes that come with XP, you might like to try Zune: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=75078 - it looks quite nice and modern.
