Thanks in advance for any and all worthwhile advice.

I'm guessing you should be able to buy it straight from MS, if you can't find it from another source. I was able to buy a brand new copy of MS-DOS 6.22 (released in the early '90s) in 1997.

Save money. Build your own and slap a copy of 2000 on it.

Been running Win2000 for a couple months with zero problems. Reccommend it highly.

RE:Mac recommendations are unnecessary and not helpful.

No Mac stuff? you mean you don't want to join the cult? they have pamphlets....

Much less expensive to buy assembled PC with loaded Software than to build your own, unless it is just an upgrade or you want some weird configuration.

As far as I know Win2k will be around awhile. XP as far as what I know is only the replacement for the desktop OS where Win2k is the Network OS. If you don't want XP just strip it off whatevr you get and put on Win2k or ME which is the last desktop OS. Still some copies out there. Just check computer shows in your area.

Yes, you can do it, but why would you want to? Win 2000 was not a great program (I stuck with Win98 and think it's better), but XP is more stable, gives you more scope for the future, and - unless you are running truly unusual software - will run anything you have. This is particularly true if, as it seems, Windows is not your main platform.

Merchandising? Hey, that's what a business is all about. Microsoft is doing what any feral creature does - the big fish eat the little fish, or even other big fish that can't swim fast enough.

That said, unless you really need a new system right now, I'd wait a few months and let at least some of the bugs get squashed out of the consumer systems that run on XP.

Also a lot of ME and 98 equiped systems that are refurb or new leftovers out there. Check Tigerdirect.com, or egghead.com and look under the auctions. Both places still have systems with ME and 98.... new and refurb both.

Actually, the XP line covers desktop and server... XP Home replaces Windows ME, XP Professional replaces Windows 2000 Professional, and XP Server replaces Windows 2000 Server.

i picked up xp this morning and installed it. no problema.

it's win2000 with some jazzed up music and photo capability.

i don't care for the new desktop but you can revert back to the icons of the "classic" editions.

You can buy the windows ME can't you, and then put one together. that's what we did, I would think you could still do it. We got an ASUS motherboard which takes Sdram or DDR and has an AGP port for the video card (put in an Nvidia GeForce 2MX card), put an Athlon 900 or something - Geez I can't remember now and can't think where to find the info... You can just reuse your CDRom and floppy, and even your HD. Although you might want to spring for a 7200 rpm model if you don't have one.

it's great. 3d games scream.

I found an HP here http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-Details.asp?sku=H860-6830

Here's another from tigerdirect http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?sku=TSA-8-30A%20P

Windows XP sounds like it is going to be a HORRIBLE thing to have to deal with.

This place has the least expensive copies of operating systems, as well as other software, that I could find anywhere. The company is reliable and I have been to their store and bought from them on several occasions.

DirectDeals.com

Their OEM version (SR2) is only $136.00. If you order from them do it over the phone and make sure you are specific about what you want because they usually have several different versions of the same software (I assume you don't want the Spanish language version?).

With Windows ME and 98 I ran into registry problems, had way too frequent reboots and even re-installs to correct the numerous bugs. Nver have had a problem with 2000 Professional.

There is a good reason that 2000 is better...it was built by the 'NT' group and not the bunch of clowns that built 95, 98 and ME.

I am a programmer and heavily use C++ and Visual BASIC a lot. With newly-created C++ programs, an error can easily crash the garden variety of Windows (95,98,ME,XP) but not 2000.

The difference is like night and day.

Yeah, I'm looking at a bunch of them over on that site with Win ME on them. Do some surfing, or call up one of the distributors and ask what they have. (Dell, Gateway, etc...) Tigerdirect has some good prices though.

Save money. Build your own and slap a copy of 2000 on it.

Save money. Buy a used one.

I've had good luck with Win2000 myself.

Wrong and wrong. Win XP replaces all variants of Win2k. And both Win XP and Win2k are waaaaaay better than Windows 98. Win2k ANd Win XP are real OSs, where Win98 is a cool hack, but it's got a DOS underbelly. Win2k fully obsoleted Win98 by supporting plug and play hardware installation. In my experience, Win2k will run for months without crashing. Also, don't believe it when people tell you it won't run on anything less than a 1Ghz machine with gobs of memory. I'm running it on a 150Mhz machine that shares an Internet connection and plays MP3s. You would not want to run Office on that machine, but Win 2k (and probably Win XP, too) will run on pretty ancient hardware.

Try ebay. Lots of oem software available.