Can anyone who has had experience give me a breakdown on what the differences among these four operating systems are, or perhaps point me to a website that does? I am going to be ordering a new computer soon, with my choice of 98SE, ME, or XP home edition. I am thinking I will likely go with ME. I feel that XP is still too new, I am not that much of an early adopter. I could save a little money by going with 98SE, but I don’t think it would be worthwile. Or would it? My current system has Win95, which is why I included it.
Thanks in advance to any help anyone can give me here.
win 95, 98, 98se, and ME are all of the same basic operating system…just newer versions of the same kernel. Windows XP home is of a different basic build, from windows NT. It is the newest version of Windows 2000 for the home user. Windows ME was really ment as a hold over until XP could come out.
I’ve been using WinXP Professional (same OS, some extras)for several months now. I have found it to be an excellent OS with few errors. As long as you don’t mind the whole mandatory activation I would recommend using XP
I have XP on my new computer and haven’t run into much in the way of problems with it. All the games I have installed so far run fine, except for a small graphic error in Soldier of Fortune which I’m pretty sure is a 3D card thing, not the OS. One thing I have run into with it that I didn’t have problems with in 98 is a slowdown of the OS after spending a lot of time playing games - exiting the game after a few hours of Max Payne or Arcanum the menus are slow to come up and it takes a while for all the icons on my desktop to get the correct associated graphics for them. It seems to clear up after a minute or two, so I’m wondering if it takes it a while to clear up memory.
Windows XP has a huge native driver base, the largest I’ve seen in a windows OS…but they are not perfect. The Nvidia XP drivers are much better than the ones built into the OS.
I personally would NOT go with ME. I have seen many problems with it and have removed it from 3 systems and installed 98se.
IMHO ME was nothing but a revenue booster for M.S. - was not up to the standard of previous OS’s - was a stopgap between 98se and xp and will not have the same support as xp or se.
I would go w/ xp if your system is over 1 ghz and 256 ram - and consider se if lower.
Here’s a discussion we had about it a few weeks ago in the pit.
Now it’s not an end all and be all of discussions, but it does give some insight into the questions surrounding MS-XP, whether or not you believe in the hoopla surrounding it. Personally, I think there were some good arguments made in that thread, both for and against the registration process.
For a home computer, I would recomend either XP or 98SE. If you’re a hard-core gamer, I’d go with 98SE. ME and XP appear to have a performance hit (albeit small at times). Personally, I would not even consider ME.
98 will continue to be supported for years to come. Hell, even 95 is still supported in almost all new software to a very large extent.
XP is a nice piece of softare though… nothing wrong with it.
I’ve been using XP for the past 3 months, and it’s awesome. It is ten times as stable as any 9x/Me OS. It’s got some really nice added features too, but buy it for the stability. I have no problems with games on it, and it just runs so well. The Activation thing is not a big deal, and you only need to activate if you change 6 items all at once. (read about it at PC Magazine) So don’t worry about having to reactivate if you add a USB gamepad, or anything. (With my XP RC2, I’ve added a DVD-ROM, new printer, new gamepad, a USB hub, and RAM…no reactivation…of course, none of those are major changes).
GO WITH XP. If not, at least use Win2000…avoid 9x…it sucks in comparison.
I was using XP Pro for a little while. When I reformatted, I went back to 98SE.
Why?
What I didn’t like:
[li]XP is an absolute pig of an install for an OS. Almost 2GB.[/li]
[li]XP does not support my V5500AGP Video Card.[/li]
[li]XP benchmarks a bit slower in some of the games/sims I play.[/li]
[li]I just don’t like the activation idea bit. While not a biggy, MS can suck my left nut if they want to know anything else about me after I buy their product. There are ways to circumvent it, but you shouldn’t have too.[/li]What I did like about XP:
[li]Stable.[/li]
[li]True plug & play. Everything on my PC was functioning perfectly (save the V5500 as mentioned) upon installation of the OS. This includes my burner, DVD, USB stuff, network card, sound card, you name it.[/li]
[li]The “desktop” is a nice, clean, freindly design.[/li]What I like about 98SE:
[li]It has always been stable for me. Some people might not believe me (or want to) but I honestly cannot remember the last time it has crashed.[/li]
[li]Small install size. After a fresh reformat and install of everything (drivers, etc) it weighs in at about 250MB.[/li]
[li]EVERYTHING I could ever want supports 98SE just fine. I can’t think of anything that doesn’t.[/li]
[li]Performs like a dream … my games and sims benchmark faster on 98SE than XP.[/li]I may revisit XP when I buy a GF3 video card, but I am in no rush whatsoever.