Posted on 04/28/2003 5:48:04 PM PDT by ru4liberty
My computer came with ME installed. Someone suggested that I install XP. Who has been there and done that? Are you glad?
Also, since I last downloaded IE 6.0, I haven't been able to do a scan disk or defrag. Is this a bad thing? What could be the matter?
Or better yet, stay with ME and add linux and save yourself the outrageous price and paranoid licencing of XP.
Linux is essentially a free and open-source operating system. If you buy a retail copy what you are paying for is the manual and the support and at that the price is about 1/5 of the price of a Microsoft operating system and includes a broad selection of open-source applications that would cost extra in windows.
The licensing for XP is tighter. Your PC will take advantage of opportunities when connected to the internet to "phone home" and ensure that no other PC is running the same licensed copy of XP.
The internal architecture of XP is much stronger, making the system more robust (and more hungry for memory and cpu).
If you only have 128 Mb of RAM and are a computer phobe, I'd likely recommend staying with what sort of works. Just don't put any really important data on it, such as your business's accounting records, unless you have mastered the art of backups.
If you have the memory (say 256 Mb) and want the "reasonable best", get XP. Or get XP and add memory (XP will cost you more than the memory, unless you choose to pay someone else to install the memory, but install XP yourself).
If you object to Microsoft's business practices and licensing, try Linux. I manage about 10 systems for my relatives - they are a mix of Linux, Windows 98, and Mac OS X, depending on the persons needs.
Of the various Windows of recent years, ME has one of the poorer reputations for technical quality.
Personally, I have had minimal issues with XP. I just bought my third XP system over the weekend for my kids, replacing my last Win98 system (probably my favorite OS of all time and I'm sad to see it finally go).
I guess the real question to ask you is what the specs are on the system you have. First, you should have at least 256MB of RAM before installing XP. They say it will run on 128MB but barely. 512MB is preferable if you can swing it. You should also have a fairly modern processor. If you have less than a 733MHz, don't bother. My three systems run on 2.13GHz, 1.7GHz and 1.13GHz respectively. The 1.13GHz system is noticeably slower.
XP is much better about plug and play and home networking. But it has quirks. I suggest getting a book on XP tips so that you can configure it the way you like it. If you are going to network with an older workstation (such as one that runs Win98), it can get dicey unless you know what you are doing. A neighbor of mine spent an entire weekend trying to share his broadband connection on an XP system with a Win98 system. I finally got it to go by de-activating the XP firewall. Go figure.
One thing I can say about XP is that is is rock-stable. It has only crashed once or twice in the year and a half since I first started using it. In fact, the computer I am typing on right now hasn't been rebooted since maybe last September.
If you have a decent monitor, you might want to consider just buying a new system. Over the weekend, I bought a HP Pavillion for my kids. Costed me $513. It came with a 2.13 Ghz processor, 256MB of RAM, 64MB of video RAM and a 80gig hard drive as well as a slew of USB 2.0 ports and a brand new keyboard and mouse. Did I mention CD-RW with a separate DVD? I plugged it into my network on Saturday morning and within 15 minutes, my sons were good to go.
He has a computer show out here in Los Angeles on KFI 640am radio.
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