The best talkie phones are made by Samsung and Apple right now.   I run a Samsung Galaxy III bought cheap two years after it first came out.  It is the very least of what you can buy for a talkie phone right now (or you could say I bought the new state of the art as it developed, two years after the fact, cheap).

Sounds like you have talked yourself into a monitor keyboard mouse rig as your best solution.

This leaves a choice between dual booting Mint Mate Linux for $6 bucks and going with a $179 Chrome box.

Least costly first attempt would be dual booting.  You have read the book, so you know the steps.   It actually is very easy once you have the DVD in your hand.  The install copy on your machine after you cold boot the machine actually walks you through the steps one by one.  

You can buy them from OSdisk.com for $6  (plus shipping) if you don't understand burning an ISO.   What processor do you have 32 bit or 64 bit?  If you don't want to burn your own DVD, go here and just pick what you want.

https://www.osdisc.com/products/linux/linuxmint/linux-mint-16-mate-install-li...   for 64 bit machines

https://www.osdisc.com/products/linux/linuxmint/linux-mint-16-mate-install-li...   for 32 bit machines

I also understand you feel the need to get it done before April 8th.  So, go head and pick the low dollar $6 route and give it a whirl.  

If it doesn't work out to suit you, you can order an Asus Chromebox later on when they get into a more ready supply situation instead of being totally sold out and way way backordered like they are right now.

Art,.. 100% chance you are 32 bit...
... but,.. right-click on My Computer, select properties... if it don't say 64 bit on the general info page, you are 32bit.

http://www.techpraveen.com/2010/01/how-to-check-whether-windows-xp.html

The XP lover's DEATH RAP song


Ol buddy Serowbot, what 'cha gonna do?

What 'cha gonna do when they've come for you ????

Little wormy squirmy uglies, what 'cha gonna do?

What 'cha gonna do when they've come for you ????

When the machine won't boot and the screen's all blue?

What 'cha gonna do when they've done come for you ????

Your buddies' heavy duty armor, it sure looks great ....

You wish you really had some, but now it's too durn late .....

Hey there, Serowbot -- what 'cha gonna do?

What 'cha gonna do when they've come for you ????

Wormies in your flash drives, wormies in your bed ....

Sometimes it seems ya got wormies in your head .....

You cry out now for red armor sanity, but you didn't go get you any .....

to keep out all them nasty little wormies that knocked you on your fanny.

Got you 8 days left and UPS only takes four .....

If you get your order in  and procrastinate no more !!

Oh Serowbot, what 'cha gonna do?   What 'cha gonna do?

It's too durn late when they've already come for you !!!




BTW, installation time and the plain easiness of the install program have GREATLY improved since the last time you actually put the suit on ....   Click below to review progression of the "easy automatic install" and the greatly lowered install time & reduced operator trouble factors.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOw_UdL7O-0&list=PLd_l3RnNf8-FdVQ2G0V53mCQ0PX...

Yep, you are square in the nebulous zone, when Intel wasn't true 64 bit yet and the machine's bios certainly wasn't.

Get the 32 bit disk, stick it in, reboot the machine, answer the questions

Tony Stark can do it falling off a building in less  than 7 seconds ....

Old-rider says it works great and he's just used it himself.

I don't argue with progress, I had to bolt on my own faceplate the last time I did it from a fresh start.

But it got faster and and a lot easier ....

Yep there has been lots of progress since version 9

and this is Old-rider's version 16 no less

(with my version 17 coming out in two months time)

Don't let me scare you, but your Linux file manager can see inside your XP drives on drive C:, it can copy and paste from there to here, or you can put your data on a thumb drive and just keep it there for both systems since your Libre Office can open your MS Office files and can even save them back as MS Office formats of whatever version you prefer.

But you will have to learn some to do that.   I taught mine to use the MS Office 97/2000 standard format and extensions automatically as the system defaults, so my wife just sees her school files just open, then save.  

(wives are like you and Serowbot, they don't want to have to bolt on their own faceplates)

Mint I use had Firefox as the default browser, but it is always available in the Software Manager.

Firefox is neat since it is FOSS software anyway, you can just go to the web site and download the Linux version if you can't seem to locate it in the Software Manager.

I think things will get even easier when we are all on the same Mint version as those who are better at it can find the stuff for those who aren't.   Its there, and generally isn't hard once somebody points out where they stuck it.

But it's good to hear that you got your suit on now, we can count on you to be clunking around with us for a goodly long time since them whip wielding virus guys and and them Loki wormy masters and all the other evil baddies can't get to you.

Let's see, we are 3 for 3 successfully putting the suit on so far and Art will be #4 pretty soon.    Justin however has gotten all quiet on us lately, but he was going to be working on a big project at the house and not be messin' with the web for a bit.

I hope Justin doesn't let Black Tuesday (yeah, 4/8/14 has a name now) creep up on him unawares and catch him in the shorts on the following Wormy Wednesday when all the nasty aimed exploit stuff gets turned loose by the crazy paid Loki types at midnight on Black Tuesday.    

   .... and today is April Fools day and we all get to play like we are MS and do us some FUD and talk about them bad hacker boys sneakily opening up  the back doors into XP's drop flap long jonns so they can insert their little lit M80 suppositories up your PC's depositor.  

   Eeeewww ....   there goes another XP machine

And I like this one too, this is where Loki the worm master tries to directly infect the red suit bearer by transferring his evil directly into Tony's  heart  --  and Loki gets him a real surprise.   When you are running Linux the protection goes all the way to the core, from the heart out.  

Even when you are not suited up, Linux cannot be infected by Window's worms. 

Watch the expression on Loki's face when his evil infection just doesn't do anything .... and he tries again and again and it just doesn't work.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3GF1x0-VX0

Speaking of things that mangle up a Windows machine (and can affect a dual boot arrangement) is the infamous boot sector (or boot kit)  attack.

Microsoft does not like Linux and they try to kill off a dual boot arrangement "accidentally" every once and a while by installing new software updates that replace the boot loader with a bone stock MS version.

There is a Linux tool for that, it is called the Boot Repair disk.  If you run off CDs, it comes on a CD.   If you run thumb drives, it comes on a thumb drive.  

The key thing is you need to have it already sitting in your software box when the need arises -- so go here, read up, burn you a copy on to your favorite bootable media and set it aside for when you need it.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

This boot disc (or thumb drive as the case may be) is stuck in place and the machine rebooted.   It detects what you have and if you have over 2 OS's on your machine it asks you for the boot order for them.   Beyond that, it is a fully automatic no-brainer fix.

     (the very best kind !!!)

This disk is step #1 to figuring out what just happened to your machine when it won't boot.  I have used this disk 3 times in my years of Linux use, once because MS screwed me up on purpose, once because I screwed myself up repairing Windows (ignorance, really) and once because of a boot kit attack virus.

This disk is worth it -- trust me.

As Microsoft gets more and more desperate, you can count on them "helpfully" replacing your boot loader for you at least once or twice to remove that "unauthorized access" to all that "illegal copies of software" that they just detected on your machine.

It is all part of your journey to the point you finally throw MS off your machine as not really doing anything useful for you and for being just a plain bad citizen with all their various arrogant behaviors.