Preserved Topic: Which OS?

Quick question; Right now I'm running Windows ME (Millennium edition) on a pentium III 900MHZ with 128 megs of memory inside. Sadly, even after a reinstall ME's become as stable as a pyramid balancing on its tip. Does anyone have a recommendation on what to switch to if I change OS's? Only windows stuff please, Linux isn't really what I'm looking for. I use the comp mainly for PS work, no heavy stuff like rendering or gaming.

XP. It uses the NT kerrnel which means that it is much more stable. Unfortunately I still use 98 I have not had the chance to upgrade to XP but from what I have seen and what I understand about it, it would be the wisest choice.

Later,
C:\


~Binary is best~

XP, and increase your RAM when possible.

I run XP with 256, and it hums like a dream. It still lags due to the file sizes I work at, but if I tried this with 128, and WinME, I'd be using a fire extinguisher daily.

I've been running win2k professional for a while now and I really like it.

-Butcher-

If you have the disk space and you have older applications or games
that you would like to continue to run, I would definitely recommend
a dual boot system.

Just add XP or windows 2000 to your existing ME. You will have to reinstall applications (either way)
just make sure you install them in exactly the same folders
on the same partition (logical drive)..this way you do not
waste any space....no duplication.

this is the best of both worlds...your games and dos applications
willl continue to work without surprise under ME if they do not
run under XP or 2000. from experience, 2000 is not a good OS
to use with legacy applications, XP is much better in that regards
(i also prefer 100% FAT32 to NTFS)

if you don't game and only go with new 32 bit applications and you're
not worried about finding drivers for older hardware and video then
i would go with a single OS and that would be Windows 2000.

(XP is windows 2000 for dummies in one sense, but it is also
more compatible with games etc. than 2000 is....this is from
my personal experience and what i have read)

business best bet is 2000
home best bet is dual boot or Windows XP home (pro is not worth the $)

if you decide to go the dual boot route i will be more than happy
to share my learning (i reformat and reinstall constantly so the traps
tricks perils and pitfalls stay fresh in my mind)

edit: windows 2000 and XP are very very stable. 98SE is so/so. ME as you pointed
out, which is what we use on the clients at work, is the biggest piece of crap.

[This message has been edited by ShootingStar (edited 06-13-2002).]

ShootingStar: You say it all in a few words there:

quote:

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XP is windows 2000 for dummies in one sense

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Right on the button there SS, hehe .

Mahjqa: I would just go with win2k for a basic look & very stable, but if you like all bells and whistles then get XP there both the same really, just that one have been bump up with the graphic UI.

Yeah, Win2000 is definitely a good choice. If you have ever used a windows product in your life, don't ever go with WinXP. As far as I'm concerned, it's Playskool windows and I really detest the damn thing.

However, it is a little friendlier with games, but I haven't really had a problem with games since everything released now has Win2k compatibility. WinXP does have legacy support for older programs and the like, but if you really need legacy applications you're better off going with win98, IMO.

Stability's a bitch, but you can't beat Win98 for speed and compatibility. Again, I wouldn't use XP if Microsoft offered me money.

for PS only? you can try using Windows for Macs......

seriously, maya runs on XP but not on ME...fortunately, my mom runs XP ....



Harmonizing new illusions...
ICQ: 67751342

My life has been a lot less stressful after installing Windows 2000.

I haven't had any problems with games either. Most of the old popular gaames that didn't work got patched to work with Windows 2000 anyways. So, just make sure ou have the latest updates for everything.

Oh, you didn't mention your other hardware specs. Some manufactures never brought out Windows 2000 drivers, but if most of your hardware it from 1999+ you should be fine.

Small note on installing: Make sure you have Win2k Modem drives saved on several disks. As long as you can get online you can can fix the rest of your hardware problems from there.

Say, anoyone ever notice how ~none~ of the big name Video Card producers have easialy browsabul websites when you viewing them with websafe colours @ 640x480. I tell ya, some of em look like my innards when I've been eating too much poridge. Which is just downright icky!

Edit: Anyone know why the WIndows 2000 start screen says "Built on NT Technology"? I though NT stands for New Technology? But I didn't think MS would be that silly so I've been meaning to ask this for a while now.

[This message has been edited by Dracusis (edited 06-14-2002).]

ug, I've only used XP a couple times, but it is very annoying. Everything is so amazingly dumbed down. It's the AOL of OS's

Maninacan Cell #471
kewl
Mad Scientists

Uhh, Mac OS 9.2 or X? Or XP would work... hehehehehehe



'Me no here. Me go bye. Leave me message. Me reply.'

Wolfen's Sig Site

I've been thinking about a duel boot with win98SE/2000 myself. If I use partition magic will it format the disk or just partition it and leave all the existing info as is?


~We're not here for long, we're here for fun~

Yes, you could do it with Partition Magic but personally
I don't really trust it. One rule of thumb to keep in mind
you should install 98SE first (given it is the older OS) and
then 2000. You can then configure your boot.ini or from
within 2000 to select which OS to boot up by default.

I like to start with a clean reinstall. reformat to eliminate
any crap and possible boot sector virusese and then reghost.
if you don't have a ghost or similar image then obviously
you may not want to reinstall gigabytes of apps

but i think the clean reinstall (partition from fdisk if needed)
is the way to go.

I would really reccommend Windows 2000!

It is extremely stable, and just about it's only downside is that you have to micromanage everything to keep it running efficeintly.

I upgraded to XP a few months ago, and then dropped back to Windows 2000 Professional, it's nice and stable, without all of the *stupid* bells and whistles and "I wanna be like apple" add-ons, heh. ;-) I really was startled when I heard you only have 128MB of ram though! RAM is cheap, and everything runs better when it's got the memory to work with. Do yourself a favor and drop a few bucks on memory, I run all of my systems now with at least 512 MB each, a cheap upgrade, and worth it in stability.

Your pal, -doc-

I use XP at home and 2000 at work Gotta say after spending a couple of hours tweaking XP (basically making it work a hell of a lot more like 2K, that PlaySkool GUI was the first to go.) I like the left-over bells and whistles.



.:[ The Tao of Steve ]:.
Be Desireless
Be Excellent
Be Gone
...................................

hmmmm .. I didn't have a choice when I bought my comp .. I would have gone with Win2k Professional in a second .. but they said ME and that's it

I really want to go back to Win2k Pro

cEll .::. 513

XP, I have 256 megs of ram, p4, and 1.8 ghz, very fast, very nice. And if you don't like there new and fancy toolbar (like me) you can change the setting to classic but still run all the xp features.

I hear 2000 is good too.


___________________
tri-eye

Rammenstein: You can get an upgrade disk for Windows 2000 and install it off of their! The Doc knows more about this though, so I'd email him on how to do it...

Be careful about the upgrade from ME to Win2k.

I tried it once and ME was so poorly supported that the Win2k upgrade disk didn't recognize it as an upgradable windows OS. When I called their tech support they said the only thing I could do was get my hands on a Win 98 disk to drop in the CD tray so it would recognize that and do the install. Of course my OS's to date have come preloaded so I didn't have one and couldn't find anybody who had anything but the companion disk that comes with the preloaded OS.




-Butcher-

Whats the problem with Windows XP? Works great for me. I currently dual boot with the Win XP and RedHat 7.3 on my PC and then I have Mac OS X on the G4. You might not be in the market for a Linux OS but its a lot of fun once you learn how to use the command prompt right.

-Jestah
Cell 277

My problem with XP is that they have tryed to immitate apple. I know that it looks cool but who really needs the new taskbar, or the shitty task managing system, or any of the other shit that they put in it to lag your system? Just my opinion though.


________________
counterfeitbacon <A HREF="http://www.ozoneasylum.com/cgi-bin/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&forum=OZONE&number=7" TARGET=_blank>

win 2k pro anyday it flies esp like the Doc says when ya over the 512mb ram stage, although my p4 1.8 with the new pc 800 rimms and a 128mb vid card nearly burst into flames on my last job but then again an image at A0 size at 400 dpi is a bit on the damn big size but scrolling was a nightmare come true. still trying to figure a way round that. at home i have a dual boot win2kpro win98se setup and it works like a dream.

Ya problems with win2kpro only really start when ya have amd athlon based systems even with 512mb of ram on board they suck and crash esp in pshop with a regular monotony that will drive ya to craziness. we junked all our athlon systems when we upgraded our network to win2kpro with win2k server and the whole thing flies now.

if you dont mind losing out on the gaming side win2k is a must, dual boots are a great system but can be a bit tricky to set up. and i run mine on two separate hard drives. my fave way for doing this isnt using the boot option, what i have done is made both my hdd's bootable and disable one in bios when i change my os start that way pc doesnt even see the other os. i have my cdrom slaved off ide 1 so either os can see it, ok ya have to spend a few seconds in bios at boot when ya swap os's and remember to switch plug and play os back on in bios when ya drop to 98 and turn it off when ya come back on win2k. but i like the way it works never had a problem with it. hope this helps some

quote:

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if you dont mind losing out on the gaming side win2k is a must

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I have had win2k for years, have virtually no complaints, and have played everything from Half-Life, to Doom, to Empire Earth to MMORPG's on it, with no problem.

PS: I have an Athalon 1800+ and have no problems with Win2k

[This message has been edited by counterfeitbacon (edited 06-14-2002).]

CFB..

What drive spec ya running ntfs or fat32 and notice i said win2k pro!! the main advantage besides stability of win2kpro is the ntfs file system, a lot of games still dont support ntfs.

AMD Has know problems with win2k guess ya lucky