Page 1 of other operating systems

the major o/s is windows but are there any other o/s out there as i am having a lot of problems at the mo with 98 se

there are quite a few based on LINUX. But most software only supports windows.

Consider using Windows 2000 rather than 98se - it`s rather more stable.

Mike

so which would be better for home use because their were 3 o/s that came out in a short period windows 2000, window me and xp

p.s just realised that this should be in the software section sorry

Win ME (best avoided) was brought out in the gap between Win98 and Win XP. Dos was removed (not very well) from it to get people used to not having full DOS which is not present in WinXP. Win ME is based on the Win9x code base and so is not very stable.

Win2000 is the business version (it replaced WinNT4), but many home users have started to use it now it`s got better support. It`s based on the NT code base. (very stable)

WinXP is targeted at home users, it is based on Win2000 with a simplified interface (big buttons) and has some other bits added that were not in Win2000.

This item was edited on Tuesday, 16th April 2002, 19:52

I use win2k @ work - very good, stable OS, compare to Microsoft`s previous offerings and it`s a revelation. I use win XP pro @ home. It`s good, but a little bloated compared to previous offerings, plus you`re more likely to get hardware/software incompatibilities with it - a lot of vendors seem to have treated its release as an excuse to sell "new" versions of their wares, rather than just provide patches etc for the older versions (Saitek, Roxio and McAfee being particular culprits, although i`m sure there are others).
I would NOT recommend Linux based OS`s to a non-techy person. Firstly, there`s not much chance (or any) chance of your existing software working with it. Second, its not as easy to install or work with for the inexperienced (and can be a nightmare for the professional IT`er!). Lastly, remember that Linux is open source - in other words (and IMO) its an OS written by hackers for hackers. Which means that whilst windoze products may have security holes, they are nothing compared to what can be done in Linux, if appropriate measures are not taken. Which is why I recommend it to the technically savvy.
My vote goes with 2000. If you get an upgrade version it should be a reasonable price, especially if you`re a student (or know one who can buy it for you).
Bb

I`d have to agree that out of all the OSs I`ve used (Windows 98SE, Windows 2000 at work, Windows NT 4.0 at work, Windows XP at home) Windows 2000 edges it.

XP is a stable enough system (no system crashes since installation in January 2002) , but it`s mostly 2000-based, so if you can get a cheap 2000 disc, go for that :-)

@ Bill
I think you are being a little unfair to linux, new versions from the likes of Mandrake, etc, are as easy to install as Windows and a lot of work has been done to make desktop versions which are very easy to configure. I don`t see why you imply that it has lots of security holes compared to Windows, this is simply not true.

As for myself I use both Windows 2000 and Linux Mandrake 8.1, both perform well and I have had few problems with either.

This item was edited on Wednesday, 17th April 2002, 00:52

Windows 2000 Professional (make sure you have a minimum of 256MB ram) is the way to go. XP is a bit buggy and how MS can say it is better than 2k beats me, its legacy hardware support is awful.

All *nix GUIs suck rocks, in fact so does XP`s new GUI unless you are used to writing with crayons. I find XP is okay if you put it back to classic mode, but it made my laptop unstable (freezes every 5 mins) following the recent security updates, so I took that back to Win2k.

that was going to be my next question, is their away of find which type of ram i have without taking my pc apart to find out