Stick with XP for top performance

Timothy Gilson suggests that an easy way to avoid an upgrade to Vista and a glut of redundant hardware is to move to Linux (Vista upgrades trigger surge of e-waste, 22 February, Letters, 1 March). He says most users would notice little difference.
While I could use Open Office and a Linux email client, I would be scuppered when I tried program in VB.Net, VFP or VB6, or manage my SQL servers at work. At home my CAD package, my engine simulation software and none of my games would work.
So I cannot agree that a move to Linux would be easy. Some of us use more than just Microsoft Office on our PCs. My way of avoiding the upgrade to Vista is to stick with XP, which runs all my applications perfectly well on a four-year-old PC.
Ric Naylor