Posted on 10/27/2001 11:16:24 AM PDT by Democrats are liars
I meant to say "update". I agree: customers who are satisfied with Win2K probably shouldn't upgrade.
you have to buy copies of this joke for every computer you own
This is not new. To be in compliance with the End User Licensing Agreement, this is true of every MS operating system. I don't advise my customers to buy one copy of Win2K and load it on every PC in their shop, for example. There are volume licensing agreements to address this.
Hell, it won't even play MP3 files. You have to purchase some other software to accomplish playing stored MP3.
Absolutely untrue. The Windows Media Player which ships with XP plays MP3's out of the box. Try it.
Old software works just fine for them, and runs efficiently and fast enough on systems that have plenty of life left in them, but at not up to par for XP.
Agreed. If they have old hardware (less than a Cel 466, for example), I wouldnt advise upgrading to either Win2K OR XP. However, if they have the hardware to support it and have encountered stability problems with Win9x/ME, upgrading to either Win2K or XP is worthwhile.
Only the uninformed run for the first release of any software
I've been running a dual boot of XP and Win2k since the early XP betas. The RTM XP. in my experience, is incredibly stable..perhaps more so than Win2k. I don't have a problem recommending either to customers. Of course, if a substantial part of your income comes from fixing Win9x/ME boxes or your customers are still running a bunch of DOS programs, I can see why you might be reluctant to advise installing an NT kernel operating system.
Please read more carefully and note that I was replying point by point to another poster.
I don't begrudge Bill Gates his money, but I do figure that he really could afford his own guinea pigs.
I agree, except my rule is to wait until at least the second service pack has been released. Every new Windows release is buggy until Bill get's around to fixing it -- and then fixing it again, and again.... (NT 4.0 had at least six fixes.)
I'm just now updating all of my boxes to Windows 2000. I really love the Server version. It's saving me loads of admin time.
For XP, I think I'll modify my rule to wait until the second service pack and until Bill finally gives up his new absurd licensing scheme.
I've also found the Microsoft Works product to be sufficient for low resource computers, students and even for general office use. It's less than $60 and you get word processing (fewer features than Word but enough for most folks), a spreadsheet (likewise in relation to Excel), a database that meets most people's individual needs (not for network use), calendar, address book, etc. The file formats are (mostly) compatible with the regular Office products.
If you want all the above plus the full version of Word, Microsoft Money and more, you can splurge on Works Suite for 110 bucks.
Since most people don't use all the features in Excel and only occasionally use PowerPoint, the above should be sufficient. I consider these good values from Microsoft and often overlooked.
I must bow to your lowest computing power platform :)
Thanks for the reply. I decided to give up on my old Dell (1 year old); I bought a new Dell with XP already loaded. It works fine and does not crash. Do not know what was up with my other computer.
I had several blue screens (3 the first day) and difficulty with writing CD-ROM's, but after some patches had been posted to the Windows update site, everything has been smooth and fast.
I boot faster now than I ever have in the past, and the compatibility mode allows even very old games to run. Overall for a desktop or laptop solution, XP is the way to go for most people.
I had my problems with it in the beginning, but love it now.
My old computer had win 98, and after I upgraded to Win Mil it crashed every five minutes. So I switched back.
Got a new computer a month ago, with Win Mil, which also crashed all the time. It came with a promise of Win XP upgrade.
Took me three tries, then it worked like a charm. Hasn't crashed yet, though I'm still downloading drivers from the net.
Wouldn't want to load it myself if I was new to computers though.
However, it works faster and slick as a whistle.
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