any reason to keep xp computers around?

i been doing a lot of clean up. i have 3 old computers running xp. they are circa 2000 to 2008. is there any good reason to keep them or should i just recycle them? i tried loading win 10 into a couple of them and they won't take it .

So keep or recycle?
Put Linux on them. There are many versions from those friendly to windows users (Linuxmint) to the very bleeding edge. I am currently running it on a circa 2006 Dell laptop and a mid 2006 MacBook. Hmm - the 2000 one may be getting long in the tooth.
 
Put Linux on them. There are many versions from those friendly to windows users (Linuxmint) to the very bleeding edge. I am currently running it on a circa 2006 Dell laptop and a mid 2006 MacBook. Hmm - the 2000 one may be getting long in the tooth.
That's my go-to advice, too; but fewer and fewer mainstream, desktop-oriented distributions continue to support 32-bit versions.
 
I’m hardly a computer guy, but I grew to understand XP, and it seems to be very stable. My machines are all over a decade old, closer to 15 or more, and they work great.

Honestly I never had stability issues with 95 sp2, xp or windows 7. or DOS/win 3.1.... never tried the others. I did have issues at first when I used win95 but that turned out to be a hardware issue, the shop sold me a Cyrix 6x86 P166+ but actually overclocked a lower model. Once I rectified that it was stable and ran 24/7
 
I don’t connect any of my maintenance software laptops to the internet. One, they’re stable and running, I don’t want to screw that up and two, I don’t have Internet at my shop.
Same here, I use one for my old diagnostic programs like TIS 2000, it is not online and that is all it does. Well, sometimes I do play Postal on it. LOL
 
Lots of things that can be done on an XP-era PC, many of them already mentioned.
Keeping XP on it:
-retro gaming PC
-run old software that doesn't work on newer versions of Windows (assuming you have some that is important to you)
Putting linux on it:
-experiment/learn linux stuff
-file server
-mp3/ogg music player for the garage (no need for internet)
-add a 2nd network adapter and turn it into a firewall (ipfire or pfsense)
 
Think I still have a Windows 3.1 machine somewhere ... could be a collectable for a museum by now. 😂
 
I liked XP 7,8,10 are all terrible not really better just more layers to dig through .
You got that right on XP. I have an old IBM Thinkpad T42, Pentium 1.6gz with XP. Running on last version of Firefox for XP. I always used on travels abroad & it never let me down.
 
I have an XP laptop that runs Techstream and the 32 bit drivers for the knockoff OBD dongle.

I could use an XP desktop to work with my SCSI card and Nikon Coolscan 2000 slide/ negative scanner. It sort of works under linux but doesn't have the IR dust reducing thing working like it would with the OE software. Am watching the dump for one...
 
I have 98SE on ASUS A7N8X-X board w/ AMD Athlon XP processor clone. Runs AutoCad and large format SCSI scanner.
I run Linuxmint 20.1 on Dell Inspiron 1520 laptop. My daily driver. Got it 1 year old from my neighbor. I kept repairing XP on it. She finally took my advice and got a Mac and gave the Dell to me. Macs are nice but really don't like their non standard keyboard, and having to use key combo's in place of pushing one button. Apple tax. Unnecessarily difficult to do regular repairs by design.
 
I love XP, when the XP computer dies the wife bought a new latest win 10 fancy model and gave me her Win 7.
 
If you get rid of the computer, remove the hard drive and keep it for a while. You can connect it via USB later to retrieve or run things that you might later need.
Can I transfer pictures off the old XP to my newer W10 this way?
 
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