OK folks, for those of you who have been following my computer upgrading this spring (no one, I am guessing), the deed is done, the new Inspiron 8K notebook is in the mail. I’'ve bought a 1394 20g external for swapping between that and the Win98/500 i have at home, and am eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new toy.
Here's the rub: i've heard that WinME is crap, and even more specifically that it has some major problems with AV apps (I'm a sound editor/designer). I've decided, tenetively, that i am going to give it a shot: install all of my newly upgraded ME compatible audio software on it and see how it works out. My concern is, if it does end up being really unstable, how much work is it going to be if i decide to install 98SE (from disc, the edition that came
with my MiniTower) on to a laptop?
One concern that I know i will run into is when I added the firewire card to the MiniTower, I had to download the drivers directly from windows, so if i put the same edition of 98SE onto the laptop, will it need help finding its own firewire port? Does anybody have experiences in working with ME doing AV (specifically multitrack audio) and if so can you confirm or refute my concerns? Should I chill? or should I not even waste the time trying to make ME play nice and load 98SE as soom as the Laptop arrives here?
I’ve never actually changes OS’s on a comp before so I have to say I am a bit ignorant on the process in general, any advice or resources anybody has got would be greatly appreciated.
It’s generally pretty easy. Just make sure you know the details of all the hardware. ME is just an extension to 98, so you should be able to use the same drivers. Gateway sends you an OS disk, a driver disk, and an app disk. The other two are identical whether you use 98 or ME. Be sure you format, and you may need to fdisk to repartition it.
Can’t really say what’ll happen with all the possible combinations of software, etc.
There are probably some programs let you boot to multiple operating systems so you can check to see which one you want. Free or cheap from download.com
I suggest you give Winme a try before you format and install win98. I would only urge you to go to win98 if the computer you’re getting comes with less than 128mb of ram. Winme is a real big ram hog.
As a former software reseller, that’s illegal unless you have another licensed OS on the desktop.
Your best bet is to look into getting Win2K assuming all your apps are compatible with it. Much more stable than Win98 and for a laptop, ideal if you have security concerns.
While technically correct, I have philosophical problems with this, but that’s best left for another thread. I covered a little bit of it on the Napster thread.
AAAUGH!!! TechChick, What did the poor guy ever do to you? Why would you force this punishment on him, is it because of that licensing thing? I’m sure he didn’t mean it (quick, Bad Hat, say you’re sorry)! hahaha
To be fair, though, that’s really not a bad idea. You likely won’t be doing much on your laptop that will run you into any compatibility or usability problems with Windows NT5^H^H^H2000, so you might want to consider it.
That is, of course, unless you’d prefer not to pay $300 for a new operating system when you already paid for one…but I’ll shut up now to keep this out of great debates.
So anyway, is this [sub]Linux[/sub] where we [sub]OpenBSD[/sub] get to advocate our [sub]Linux[/sub] favorite operating system instead of [sub]OpenBSD[/sub] just sticking to the OP?
I asked this qusetion before, an old thread long ago, and was told at that point that the licensing was more of a seat agreement. Meaning that it applied to simultaneous users. Basically I use one system at home, and one whn i am in a tech rehersal at a theatre, never at the same time.
So in theory, i could uninstall the OS from the MiniTower every time i leave the house, install it on the Laptop and then repeat in reverse when I get home everynight. I suspect this would be legal, so what are the specifics of the law that distinguish that from simply leaving the OS installed on both computers and only ever having one booted at any time? Beyond that, even, I have 2 computers and two largely similar OS’s for which i paid, so what if i choose to use one (the older, cheaper one) on both computers and let the newer one waste away. Before that logic gets picked apart by you intellectual property specialists out there, keep in mind that it is secondary to my main point anyway. I know its less solid legally.
Thanks everybody for the advise. I’ll keep everyone posted.
CJ
However I didn’t read thoroughly through the rest of the site but some parts stuck out at me that you still can’t unless it’s a backup copy.
Anyhow, if Win ME is crap, Win 98 can’t be much better, IMO. Having used all versions of Windows since 3.1 (including NT - Backoffice) etc, etc…an NT based product is going to be more stable than it’s consumer counterparts.
For anyone that uses a Windows based product and are heavy users of their systems especially for business purposes, I stand with the NT end (Win2K) and would stay away from the consumer based products altogether.
BTW, that quote didn’t “specify” any product, so it could have been any product that Microsoft offers. I didn’t seek out the typical OEM EULA so if anyone wants to make sure they are in the up and up (yeah right) then look at the documentation that came with your own computer.
Thanks for the info. And as far as WinME sucking, All i base that on is some of my peers saying that is has specific problems with pro-audio multitracking. Nothing substantive or in print. just a vague murmuring among my peers. I'm gonna give ME a shot, since all of my upgrades claim to be optimized for it, and I don't want to go thru the hassle of OS hopscotch if i don't have to. I don't think i feel like trying Win2K yet, i'm getting the impression that it would probably be better to wait for Whistler.
I dont know about anyone else, but I have win 2000 (Im not confusing 2000 and ME by the way, but Im assuming that ME is just as reliable as 2000) on my laptop and it runs like a dream. I have NEVER had a BSOD with it (IE very occasionally crashes, but it always goes back to the desktop) On the other hand my friend runs 98 on his laptop and it crashes all the time. Basically, Im saying that 98 is crap, Im not saying definately go out and buy 2000 or anything. Also, in my experience installing/reinstalling operating systems is a real nightmare. At least give ME a try.
However, my laptop does have 128 RAM, so take into account what broys says.
I’ve used win98se without too many problems. Most of the instability and crashing I’ve had can be traced to Office 2000 and immature drivers. Ditch O2k, get latest drivers, problems go away.
Winmil however…yikes…the overwhelming evidence is that it’s crap, crap, crap.
The general opinion of the community seems to be that choice of windows versions would be something like this:
so if it aids in anyones analysis, heres the system…
Dell Inspiron 8000:
PIII 700
10Gb internal
256Mb RAM
Optical DVD
Optical CDRW
2 USB
1 1394 (Firewire) port
I do no gaming, or video, just lots of audio multitracking, uncompressed.
I use Cakewalk SONAR
SooundForge 5.0
CD architech 4.0
and Word and Excel
I have a firewire external 20Gb drive for swapping with the home computer, a firewire sound card (MOTU 828), and a USB optical mouse.
I’ve been running Win98SE at home for about a year and a half and its been about 90-95% reliable. Never had a total system crash (knockin’ on wood) but occasionally (once a week or so) I freeze up and have to reboot. Most of my apps autosave so i’ve never (knock knock) had a major file loss.
seens there is a wide variety of opinion on this issue here, and it seems contingent to some extent) on what i am using the comp for, and how much muscle it has. I hope this clears it all up
RElated question, in adition to the 500 PIII at home, i also have a 350 PII that has all but become a paper weight, I notice that my new audio software supports dual processor configurations. Is there anyway to set up a dual processor system in a preexisting Dell MiniTower, or would i have to build a new box from scratch? and if i could do such a thing, would a dual processor set up of a 500 PIII and a 350 PII be useful in speeding things up at all?
