OT - What Win OS is best

[RAMWolff44]

Thnks for the heads up on Red Hat! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] Wondering if you have a link to that information page so I can read all about it, a bit curious.

One thing I HATE about the Linux community is the fact that, while they like the kernel to change and get better and better they hate ideas like this, thinking very much ALOUD that they don't want Linux to become another "Windows Klone" but I don't agree. I really like the file system and the way Linux runs but I am in agreeance about establishing some conformity. Keep the codes open but give the creators guidelines that must be adhered to or NO GO!! If Linux wants to get somewhere this MUST happen. So, as much as I abhore Red Hat, I like that they are, once again [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img] in the forefront of moving Linux onto the desktop, which is what all of us "curious georges" over in the Windows world want! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Richard [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

---Wolff On The Prowl---

[williama]

XP isn't any slower than Win2K, in fact it runs faster on my machine. The hibernate option rocks. I hibernate my machine every night, and it starts up again in no time. I only actually reboot once a week or so.

If you reinstall it, it just needs to be reactivated, and the most registration information that you need to supply, is the country that you intend to use it in. Activation is a snap, especially if you have an internet connection running. The only time that you might have more hassle is if you change a number of hardware components. In that case you'll need to call MS (800 number), and give them a code that displays on your screen, tell them that you changed something, and they'll give you a code back to reactivate. You're not even required to tell them who you are. I'd swapped out a few bits of kit, without needing to do this. I only had to do it after I changed my motherboard and processor.

If you don't like the new look, you can custiomise everything away to use it just the same as Win2K.

It has the widest driver support of any of the Windows flavours. Much better than Win2K. Generally speaking if your device ran in Win98 or Win2K, it'll run in XP. Of course there will be exceptions, but on the whole you should be fine. I have an old HP scanner, which was barely supported in Win2K, and then only at low resolutions. After installing XP, it was recognised immediately, and a significantly better driver was installed, giving me full functionality back.

Watch out for Roxio CD burning software (Adaptec), that did have issues, but I think that the latest version fixed that.

You don't need to shell out for the Pro version if your networking needs are basic. File sharing between machines works fine, as does connecting to the internet. The home version doesn't come with the built-in IIS webserver, or some of the domain connectivity I imagine.

You'll probably be ok with upgrading an existing Windows installation. But, a clean install is always recomended.

Another thing to note, is that MS has a policy of support that covers the current version, and 2 previous versions. So 98SE should be supported until next year some time, and Win2K will probably be fully supported until 2004/2005.

[Gaussian]

Don't underestimate the importance of NTFS; not so much for security reasons, but for reasons of stability. With FAT/FAT32 you're doing a SCANDISK a couple of times a week [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[Soquili]

Hey Richard,

You can read some of the debate about Red Hat desktop here.

And the official Red Hat press release about it here.

Soquili

[traceyp]

.... are pretty basic. We have a network of four PCs each running Win98SE interconnected via an ADSL 4-port 10/100MHz Modem-Router with full file sharing between all PCs and full internet facilities. From what you say I reckon that if I go for XP, the Home edition should be perfectly adequate. We're not running any server system or anything else equally as flashy. It really is an elementary network system - what I would imagine a typical, simple home network to be!

Tracey

[RAMWolff44]

Mandrake 9.0 was released today, here is the link to the official notice at Mandrake.com. Looks pretty interesting! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Richard [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

---Wolff On The Prowl---