Not to argue over the unknown, but I can say from memory support for W98SE was dropped last year, six+ years after W-Whatever, forget its name, and six years after w2K. I don't expect them to drop XP any time soon. I just looked up information on the Dell C521 we purchased in December of 2006, it was under $600 before tax, so less than the subject Gateway of this thread. This Dell had the AMD 64 and 1 GByte of memory, but a much smaller HDD than the subject Gateway. It also has the 5 slot memory card input and a 17" LCD, so that says to me the Gateway price isn't particularly low. And speaking of our Dell and Vista, the Dell came with a "free" upgrade to Vista that had to be exercised by March 31. So, to be safe, and to pay only $10 S&H, I ordered our free upgrade to Vista Premium. I will not be in any hurry to implement it, and will have to see if it comes with a activation time requirement. The only statement this makes to me about upcoming Microsoft policy for XP is they want to get people on Vista so that it will be easier to provide support and to drop XP. Given what I paid for the Dell I can safely assume Dell paid the OEM for Vista and MS give them the XP Media to use until Vista (late as usual for MS) was available. Speaking of MS making money, a neighbor told me today (I have no proof, other than it sounds like the action of those who are paid way TOO much), the number 2 an MS, I forget his name, just had the largest private yacht in the world built for him, $400 million, don't remember the length but think it is several hundred feet, a crew of 65 (suppose some of them are off while others are on duty, not all on the ship at the same time), and an operating cost of 20 Million. So, MS clearly has to worry about making money off the Vista right away otherwise the top officers will not be able to buy a fleet of yachts next year.

Well the op was meant to be humorous. I'm very happy with my 23" Acer LCD and looking for an assistant to tell me what's happening on the other end. :-) Really. I work in the middle with my calendar on one end and icons on tuther none covered up; no overlaps etc. It has caused an uptrend in my happiness cycle. I only groveled on the floor for a short time. (But I did buy a new clean rug for next time - just in case). That is, however, being tempered a bit by a problem with the old POS computer which is a subject for a different post.

The "Fading" referred to by the cable company for Plasma tv is normal wear and tear. Old fashioned CRT TV's also fade over time. The current Plasma TV technology has a lifespan of 60,000 hours until half-brightness. This is about 8 years of daily use. Since, when the TV is new, you want to make sure to turn the brightness WAY down, by the half-life point, you could just turn the brightness way UP, and have plenty of life left. The yearly Maintenance, that's something I've never heard of before. Unless, they are referring to replacing the light bulb in the rear projection systems (like DLP). Those are supposed to last 1-2 years under daily use, before needing replacing.

I can't help you with any info about monitors and Lyme Disease but I've been a computer professional for 40 years. I'm certainly picky about being able to see what I'm doing since I'm clearly not young and spend 60-70 hours a week working on monitors. My first monitors were printers with keyboards attached as the punch cards were just going away. Consumer monitors like the ones you bought are pretty much made for consumer activities such as watching movies and viewing pictures. They are part TV and part computer monitor. I don't know how people stand them for serious work on text, particularly with black text on a white background. Actual televisions hooked up to a computer are great for a group of people looking a pictures from your travels but are just horrible for this type of work. Over the years, I've frequently needed a monitor on a weekend where the only choices were Best Buy, Office Depot, Staples, etc. Basically nothing they have is acceptable for serious use. I'd suggest you contact someone that deals with real computer systems and have them setup something for you to look at. My personal opinion of Viewsonic was good about the time that CRT were the norm and was impressed with some of their early LCDs. My opinion of the company is poor for at least 10 years. Another problem I see with consumer monitors is the short height, for example 1920x1080 resolution in a 27" vs 1920x1200 in a business 24". When I work seriously on a long document with lots of reorganization and edits, I use a 1920x1200 24" turned portrait. I am sure you would love everything about this one except the price: http://www.necdisplay.com/p/desktop-monitors/p242w-bk The next step down may meet your needs: http://www.necdisplay.com/p/desktop-monitors/ea244wmi-bk I've never seen that one but have the 30" version. It's a big step down from the P series but still fabulous compared to the one you are using. On my desk, I have a P241, P301, E305, and a Eizo 27" square monitor 1920x1920. I wouldn't buy anything without trying it first!