Ummm… I don’t know what your qualifications are, but as a software engineer who has spent the last eleven years writing software for Unix, and Windows (95, NT, and even *gasp* 3.x) I would say that it is uncommon for Windows software to be statically linked. Personally I preffer Linux and like to get good performance even with heavy apps so I think upgrading once every five years is good, as far as Mac users go I don’t know what they use to decide when to upgrade since I’ve never so much as seen one of those computers in person yet.

I think the general practise with most people is to buy a new computer either when a significant new version of Windows is released, or when their hardware is starting to feel too slow.

Sure upgrading isn’t necessary, but buying a computer at least once every ten years isn’t that hard either and then you can benifit from the hardware and software improvements that have taken place since you bought your last computer. On the other hand, Win95 probably predates any DRM and trusted computing junk, so one of these days (should my concerns about “trusted computing” come true) those old machines may be more usefull than what would be current at the time. Anyone still running Windows 95 who can afford it might want to consider buying a new computer with a newer OS preinstalled. Windows 95 may still work, but if it needs to support newer hardware, or handle files from newer machines running newer software then it really won’t be much good at all.

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