Ok, I know this isn't definitive, but I have an old server that is running 24/7 on a relatively old Seagate hard drive: ST340810A. It's a 40 gig IDE drive and it's been running 24/7 since around 2002 or so, so say it's around 12 years old. I have another much older hard drive running on my Amiga 500. It's a Quantum LPS52s, not positive but I think it's 1990 era. It doesn't get turned on very often, but I usually fire it up at least once a month and it functions with no problems. It's over 20 years old at any rate. I have a bunch of other old computers that still run. Their hard drives have got to be at least 10 years old. At least the 40 gig hard drives seem to have good longevity. The newer stuff, yeah they don't seem to have the same longevity. In particular laptop hard drives seem to fail a lot faster, no doubt due to the jolting they get when moved around.

OK, I'm from Canada so this may not be helpful... but I've been using ufile.ca and using the browser to file my taxes for the last several years. I use various Linux distros for this, mostly vector linux. Online Banking is the same.

Yes, we don't really have a lack of choice. We have more choices now than ever. Many of the old computer manuals have been scanned and converted to pdf. If you wanted to still program on an IBM 1130 computer you can via the simh emulator. I'm not as old as you (only 47), and I started using computers in what I would call the "middle era" which was in the late 1970's. What I've noticed since then is that the toolchain keeps changing and of course one has to shift with it. One thing has remained constant: the programmer needs a full sized keyboard. You just can't get that with these new-fangled hand-held computers. Could you imagine anyone trying to program in APL on one of those hand-helds? I should point out that there was no Unix for IBM 1130. The 1130 ran an OS called Disk Monitor System which I used when I learned APL\1130. It's definitely from the pre-Unix era.

Should cat have a gui?

Quite Simple, The "mythical" age when PCs didn't come pre-bundled with Windows was the 80's and before. If you go a bit further back to the 70's a lot of early computers even came with bios source code. A lot of those early systems came with CP/M. On top of that there were the Amiga, Ataris, TRS-80s and other earlier machines. The "Dark Ages" started around 1993. That's when Radio Shack started the whole bundle-with-windows thing. Commodore never did as far as I know, but of course they died in 1994. I think we are slowly emerging out of the "Dark Ages of PCs". I'd say the bad period spanned 1993 to 2000, roughly speaking.

I'm running firefox on machines with 512 meg and 256 meg memory sizes. Versions are 3.6.20 on the 512 meg machine running vector linux and 3.5.10 on freebsd 8.1 on the 256 meg machine. I can report that browsing on both machines works well.

Yes, I liked Tom Baker too. I also liked Hartnell, and after a while I started to like Peter Davison too. Didn't like like Tennant as much, he over-acted. The other ones I've barely seen so it wouldn't be fair to form an opinion on them, but Tom Baker and William Hartnell are my two favourites. Hartnell brought some dignity to the role that was rather lacking afterwards.

5 years, pfffft. I have a working Quantum Maverick 230 meg (that's right, MEG) drive that is at least 15 years old. My server? 12 years old Tyan mobo, and I'm on my 3rd or 4th power supply. One of the hard drives inside the server is from the year 2000, so 10 or 11 years old. I also have a working 486 motherboard which was from 1993. So I think this stuff can last a lot longer than 5 years. I have a 6809 cpu from 1983 and it works. Some of the Commodore PETs from the late 1970's still work and I'm told their cassette tapes can still load.

Why is it "PC"? Microsoft doesn't sell computers. PC just means Personal Computer so it should be "I'm Windows" or "I'm a Windows user". The ad doesn't convey any useful information, but a lot of ads don't. It's hard to imagine it would effect anyone's purchasing decision.