The problem isn't usually the spec, it's the amount of shite that's been installed unfortunately. All the adware, spyware, toolbars. The programs that you installed but forgot to uninstall that for some reason feel the need to run on boot and have a stupid tray icon, that stuff.

Also, Chrome, fucking Chrome. I really need to move away from Chrome. No matter what OS I use it just eats all the RAM. I must admit I often have loads of tabs open but even when you shut them it struggles to give the RAM back. Greedy fucker.

I keep my xp installations pretty lean. AV, firewall (not Windows own), slipstreamed sp3 and no other patches or updates (which they stopped issuing a while ago anyway). I very rarely use it for random interwebs stuff, just testing web development projects from my servers, games (mainly steam these days) and Photoshop 6. Never for email.

Agreed about Chrome. They really need to fix the memory management.

All's good with me, except tarragon. I bloody hate it because it makes everything taste of soap. Which is a pity really, since i rather liked Tarragon.