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Alternatives to the Neoware CA21

K

kb2syd

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Mar 7, 2005
Messages
1,843
Location
Wantage, NJ
So, I've used these little boxes for years for a local Ham club. We run our contest networks on these using Windows XP.

The software the club uses will stop supporting XP in the next year, so what are our options here?

We're looking some something small and cheap with just enough ooomph to run Win 10.

This is not to start a debate about the shortcomings of windows, I know the poison I drink.

Thanks for any input,
Kelly
 
Windows 7 would work, but the upgrades aren't free. I'd have to buy 12 OS's. That's not inexpensive to use these 2 or 3 times per year.
 
Cheapest route might be some Mini-ITX machines. I don't know Win10 specs, but you can often get last year's model of Mini-ITX motherboard for a very good price. I've got a good number of Core 2 Duo based board if those are of any help.

Any chance you can replace Windows with Linux and use Wine? I haven't had to use Wine in years but I've heard it has become pretty complete in its implementation.
 
A lot of the W7-XP incompatibilities were due to different DLLs being used, which is easy enough to solve. Do you have access to the new version of the application to see if this might be the case?
 
Stone said:
What would happen if you choose to not upgrade to the newest bloatware? :)
Click to expand...

The contests we participate in would no longer be updated based on rule changes. This would prevent us from being able to participate in a meaningful way. Logs need to be submitted electronically, and when you're working several thousand stations in a 24 hour period you need something better than ed to log.
 
I think the cheapest option would be to get one of those refurb Dell SFF boxes with Win7 installed:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/252310479027

For the price of a Win7 license, you get Win7 and a whole machine. I've bought dozens of these (not from this seller though) and they're generally OK. I think they mostly come from business environments who lease machines and get rid of them at the end of their lease.
 
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