Hardware in this day and age is so cheap.

Add free, open source software and you have a decent laptop running the latest stuff for a few hundred dollars.

It really is worthwhile to upgrade.

I just bought this one to run our main TV for $350 Cdn. Allows me to stream lots of free\legal stuff, and it replaces my DVD player....

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc...nd-netbooks/lenovo-b50-30-1264164/review

Its a UK review, but it is available, I assume, in the US. Otherwise, I have to think you can get a good, low cost laptop in the US.

Add an office suite for word processing etc, totally free and compatible with MS Office. This is my choice https://www.libreoffice.org/

Add a Garageband clone like https://lmms.io/ again, totally free, or Audacity, also open source and free http://audacity.sourceforge.net/


Get other useful open source software, totally free from http://sourceforge.net/


And you find there is no need to hang on to old hardware when you can get so much now, new, for a few hundred bucks


Now IF XP still works and does everything you need, of course keep it, but for a very reasonable cost, you can get as up to date as you can get

If writing ever becomes work I think I'm going to have to stop