# Windows ME vs 2000 vs XP Home vs XP Professional **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 25, 2003, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-me-vs-2000-vs-xp-home-vs-xp-professional/177434 "2003-05-25T18:37:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![The\_Raven\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@The\_Raven\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Raven_1)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-me-vs-2000-vs-xp-home-vs-xp-professional/177434/61 "2003-05-27T20:50:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Apos \* > \*\*Well, it does apparently consume outrageous amounts of system memory even when its not doing anything in particular… \*\* That’s not been my experience… Both Win2K and WinXP are relatively efficient at idle on my systems, usual memory consumption around 50MB. That’s 15MB less then Win98SE used to consume at idle on my previous rig. Granted, you have to turn off XP’s drive indexing crapola (FindFast, the Next Generation) :gag: then deep-six the Playskool GUI, but once all that’s done, you’ve got a pretty solid OS. Of course, I was a big fan of 98SE too, I can’t recall crashing the OS without the problem being in a third-party app, game, driver, overclock gone horribly wrong, etc. WinME was shovelware of the highest order, and a pox upon the land… Remember that MS has to support the entire universe of PC hardware; ALL AMD CPUs and chipsets, ALL Intel CPUs and chipsets, ALL VIA CPUs and chipsets, Transmeta CPUs, SiS chipsets, RDRAM, PC 66/100/133 SDRAM, PC2100/2700/3100 DDR RAM, Asus mobos, MSI mobos, Abit mobos, AGP, PCI, ISA, EISA, ATA 33/66/100/133, SATA, ATAPI, CD-RW, DVD, Floppies, USB 1.1, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394, SPDIF etc… And that 's just the internal stuff!! If you’re going to upgrade your OS, be sure to run the MS app that will check all your devices for compatibility. -Rav ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-me-vs-2000-vs-xp-home-vs-xp-professional/177434/62 "2003-05-27T21:42:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mr. Blue Sky \* > **Radio Shack TRS-80. 4K. Freakin’ cassette drive. 12" RCA b&w TV as a monitor.** Ah, but did you have to endure the horror that was **Level 1 BASIC** on your TRS-80? One-letter variable names, 2 string variables, no string-manipulation routines whatsoever, no PEEK, no POKE, and only the most creatively devious managed to find a way to read a super-limited subset of keyboard input while other processing was going on. (Hint: It involved SET(), POINT(), and the fact that keyboard characters were echoed the instant they were typed, even if an INPUT statement wasn’t executing.) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-me-vs-2000-vs-xp-home-vs-xp-professional/177434/63 "2003-05-28T12:05:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tracer \* > \*\*Ah, but did you have to endure the horror that was **Level 1 BASIC** on your TRS-80? One-letter variable names, 2 string variables, no string-manipulation routines whatsoever, no PEEK, no POKE, and only the most creatively devious managed to find a way to read a super-limited subset of keyboard input while other processing was going on. (Hint: It involved SET(), POINT(), and the fact that keyboard characters were echoed the instant they were typed, even if an INPUT statement wasn’t executing.) \*\* YES! YES! The horror. Damn you for making me remember that! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-me-vs-2000-vs-xp-home-vs-xp-professional/177434/64 "2003-05-28T14:52:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mr. Blue Sky \* > \*\*I’m currently running WinME and, due to stability problems, want to change (please do not recommend Linux). > > I’ve heard of the nightmares of using XP Home. Since Microsoft is no longer supporting older OS’s, I figured the sooner I change over, the better off I’ll be in the future. > > So, what are the primary (dis)advantages of these: > > Win2K > > WinXP-Home > > WinXP-Professional > > Also, when converting to one of the above, do I need to get the full version or can I get the upgrade? \*\* Here’s my experience: I use my home computer as a midi/digital audio workstation. The computer shipped wth windows ME. I could never really get my system to where I wanted it to be with ME, which caused much frustration in that I spent more time f%&king around with my stupid computer than making music. I switched to XP Pro. Sure XP Home is $100 cheaper, but after spending $4000 on a computer and software and another $500 or so on midi interfaces and audio card, I’m not going to skimp on the OS. Even though I’ll never use the remote login that XP Pro boasts, I was just afraid that there might be something left out of XP Home that might make a difference. After consulting a now-defunct website (Bluelife Audio) I disabled features, tweaked this and that, ran into some trouble, un-tweaked a couple things, and the result is I boot up, launch the apps, and make music. I can’t remember the last time it crashed. The system finally does what I want it to. So I vote for XP Pro. Also, in deciding which OS to switch to, I noticed a lot of audio folks had a lot of good things to say about 2000. ---
**Author:** ![obo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ba8739/32.png) [@obo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obo)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-me-vs-2000-vs-xp-home-vs-xp-professional/177434/65 "2003-05-30T11:06:18Z")
On the original question, i would go for XP Pro if you can afford it, if not XP Home. Win 2K is a great OS, but if you plan to integrate media (cameras and the like) then go for XP. I havnt really come accross any real problems. never had any unrecoverable crashes, but then again i didnt with most of the others either. Many of the stories you hear about are exagerated, and probably down to user screw-ups rather than OS problems (but hell its easier to blame Bill than yourself) Currently i have 9 machines running on various OS XP W2k Linux Unix 2 flavours of mac so far the leaders on up-time are XP Pro, W2k and a linux machine(text mode only) 227 days The macs have keeled over a few times, the unix once (my fault entirely) other linux machines fully loaded with kde and gnome, they run like crap(very slow) and keel over to text only frequently (what are you people doing to ruin linux, please keep it simple) Dont believe the hype about viruses, they can hit any platform or OS, unix and macs are at risk too. and yes they do crash!! Hope thats helps [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-me-vs-2000-vs-xp-home-vs-xp-professional/177434.md?page=3)