What operating system do I get tomorrow??

me

[Sungirl]

I would appreciate any advice.....

Tomorow at noon is a big day.....
Do I get Windows 98....Windows 2000.....Windows ME?? Windows XP is OUT!

I just want it for home use...no networks....no administrators. Simple, efficient and stable.

PLEASE ADVISE.

[Mr Rogers]

Interesting. Had crashes about every 6 months with 95. Tried 98, then 98 2nd edition - got used to reformatting my hard drive every 2 months. Got Windows Me - haven't had a single problem in one year. My daughter tried to crash it with some weird downloaded program - but it came back in safe mode and I could restore it to the previous configuration. From the posts on this thread, I must have gotten the only good copy.

Linux worked ok when I tried it - some problems with peripherals but I dropped it mainly because it didn't offer me anything useful.

Refuse to use Mac - I bought an Apple 2GS a couple of months prior to Apple announcing they would no longer support Apple 2 - swore I would never use anything they made again, and I've kept my word.

[Gun142]

Good point.

Thanks

[Hajman]

You guys both have it almost exactly backwards. Win2k supports DirectX, and always has - currently DX 8.1, same as ME/XP.

And most newer games run just fine on win2k, same as XP. It's mostly older games that give it problems, especially DOS games. Which is also true for XP, BTW

Yes, it does support DirectX. However, from personal experience, I've found it runs older windows games better (however, you are correct about the DOS games, since Win2000 runs a virtual DOS emulator instead of real DOS). However, my bad luck with games may be due to my system. However, I've seen it have bad luck with new games on good systems (set up for games). But there may be a way around that, and I may be wrong about that. However, I don't think sungirl has anything to worry about either way.

-The Hajman-

[Sungirl]

Win2k supports DirectX, and always has

GOod news..thanks!

[Still Thinking]

Do you have vast minutes of experience with this topic, or do you actually know what i'm talking about? I'm open to suggestions, if you're familiar with the requirements of this application.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

you mean have the same operating system (win98) on the same hard drive in several partitions? Legal, I believe. It would be a per seat license, which is for one computer.

[ZULU]

Get Linux.

Bill Gates is a gun-grabbing billionaire liberal. He doesn't need any more conservative dollars.

[Jean S]

It asks you quesitons everytime you remove a program, it asks you to send information to them and explain why you are doing what you are doing (removing programs)..

I'm running XP Professional and that has never happened to me. Are you running the home version? I would be furious if an os did that to me!

[moonman]

Windows XP Professional Edition

[DallasMike]

You should put XP back on your list. If you have a really good reason for not using XP (and I would like to hear the reason if you do), go for Windows 2000. Unless this a 4-year old second-hand machine that you're getting, do not put on Windows 98 or Windows ME. Don't even think about it.

I love Linux and have used it for years, but it's still mostly for power users and tweakers. It might be a good choice for the general public in 3 or 4 more years.

If this is a new machine that you're buying and you have to make some trade-offs, go for a faster hard drive (7,200 RPM) and lots of fast memory rather than a more powerful processor.

FWIW in terms of credibility, I write software for a living. Big ol' databases that eat memory and hard disk space like Rosie O'Donnell eats Twinkies.

[Tailback]

I have a home network of two computers which allows both my wife and I to have our own PC's and if a friend comes over we can network game. I'm currently on Win98 but am probably going to upgrade to 2000. WinXP would require me to pay an additional licensing fee to install it on another PC which I am frankly not willing to do.

[general_re]

But, it did not support DirectX 6 and that was a big deal at the time. I guess they've got it included in the DirectX sets since then.

Musta been real early in its life - when I installed mine, it had DX7 right out of the box. NT4 topped out at DX6, however.

DirectX download site.

And I can also report for gaming purposes - happily - that Win2k systems benchmark between 5 and 10% faster than identically equipped XP machines.

[cidrasm]

Let's say a guy was to figure out how to install Windows (from the same CD) to a single hard drive several times, and each system is independent from the others, is it legal?

I think that would be technically legal (since only one copy could actually be ran at a time).

-The Hajman-

I don't think that was the question Hajman. From my reading of the question, the originator asked if you could legally install one Windows CDs on multiple workstations (nothing in the post intimated that they would not be used concurrently, only that they were independent of each other whatever that means, I would guess that they were not networked, I could be wrong). From my understanding of the MS licensing agreement that would be a no-no.

B2K, your take?

[K7TNW]

WIN2K. Rock solid!

[Tailback]

I think my situation would be a pretty good reason NOT to go with XP. Otherwise XP would probably be the best bet.

[Gun142]

Yup, Windows 98 in in different partitions.
I figured it wasn't a problem since it's in the same box, but they got laws against just about everything nowadays.

[Don Corleone]

Do NOT, under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, get Windows ME. You will be just buying yourself hours and hours of pain and misery.

It is pure JUNK!

[RiVer19]

....as DallasMike says "FWIW in terms of credibility"....I work for a company that designs/implements/installs hospital systems and and sport a title of "Senior Research and Development Engineer" with 14 years experience with this company and many years in technical support and many of those years managing the technical support group.

So, for what it's worth I'm not just making this stuff up...

[DallasMike]

So, can someone give me some examples of what WindowsME has done to you to make you hate it so bad?

I don't hate it, but I think that Windows 2000 and Windows XP are more stable. A lot of our clients get ADO problems when running our database apps on ME. The average home user will never encounter that kind of problem though.

[RiVer19]

You back that up with some interesting stories and technical information.....Nice. :-)