WIn98SE vs WinMe Vs WinXP

[bystander]

Is worth upgrading to WinMe from Win98SE?

I was thinking of an upgrade to WinXP, but I'm concerned about the compatibility of XP with the software.

Also another point is performance, is a Kyro2 faster under WinXP than Win98?

I have access to both WinMe and WinXP through my university, so getting hold of either is not difficult.

Any suggestions welcome (Assuming anyone reads this...)

 

[Dave Baumann]

I don't raelly think theres much point in going to ME from Win98 - some people think that ME was much buggier (although I mine seemed fine). If you are looking to do an OS upgradethen I think it would be foolish not to go to XP, IMO. Compatability in XP has certianly been fine for me, only a few little quirks on older games where they have to be installed under an adminstrator user.

Its been a little while since I've run a KYRO under XP but if there is any performance difference then I should doubt it will last that long as XP is gradually becoming the main target OS.

 

[bystander]

Well actually I was thinking of upgrading my brother's computer to WinME, and was concerned if it was worth the hassle of trying to install it.

Why put ME on his computer? So I can have XP on mine and (theoretically) have a better PC.

Thanks for clearing that up Dave.

 

[BenM]

I wouldn't suggest "upgrading" Win98 to WinMe, the only benefit Me has over 98 is faster loading times, but the trade off is less stability IME.


2000/XP is much better.

 

[pascal]

Go for XP pro :smile:

 

[Nexus]

Yep, go XP as long as your computer is fast enough for it. It should have 400MHz+ and at least 128MB RAM.

 

[Althornin]

I find that all XP offers over 2000 is increased legacy (9x) compatability and a prettier interface. That and driver rollback.

For my money, i find win2k to be faster, more stable, less buggy (MS has had time to find some of the bigger security holes in 2k, but not in XP) and i have had zero compatability problems.

As for WinME? Hardly an upgrade from 98SE. It offers nothing new, except decreased stability and a new logo screen. Dont bother.

 

[bystander]

Thanks everyone for your advice.

I think I'll leave my brother's computer as it is, it wouldn't be worth the hassle as there is no major advantage.

As for me I'll probably upgrade to XP Pro, eventually.

 

[mkillio]

So XP has virtually no compatibility issues with game or other software?

 

[bystander]

Actually Aquamark doesn't seem to work very well on WinXP.

Eurogamer tried running it on WinXP and it seemed very unstable.

 

[pascal]

XP need at least 256MB to play games smooth.
CPU is not a problem if you chose a classic Windows face.

I have it installed and I like it very much. Before that I had the multiboot win98/win2k.

 

[bystander]

OK, I've installed it now.

Not out of choice but necessity. My Win98 installation seemed to stop working after I installed Java Media Framework(?!?!?)

So I decided that, that would be a good time to upgrade.

 

[Althornin]

I installed XP for kicks, and have used it for about 2 weeks. After i spent the first two hours turning off all the stupid eye candy that i find to be UGLY, and gettign search, etc back to classic win2k mode (screw the dumb doggie!) I find that tis a LITTLE less "snappy" than win2k. It just feels slightly sluggish, isntead of the instantaneous response i get with win2k. Most people prolly wouldnt notice it, but i do. However, it is stable, and my games run great on it. I will keep it around for a while at least to have fully explored it. Installing the powertoys (tweakui mostly, some of the other ones SUCK) is a must, and i must sya, the new tweakui is great. Anyways, XP is slightly "less responsive" but is still a good OS.

 

[bystander]

On 2002-02-27 22:24, Althornin wrote:
I installed XP for kicks, and have used it for about 2 weeks. After i spent the first two hours turning off all the stupid eye candy that i find to be UGLY, and gettign search, etc back to classic win2k mode (screw the dumb doggie!) I find that tis a LITTLE less "snappy" than win2k. It just feels slightly sluggish, isntead of the instantaneous response i get with win2k. Most people prolly wouldnt notice it, but i do. However, it is stable, and my games run great on it. I will keep it around for a while at least to have fully explored it. Installing the powertoys (tweakui mostly, some of the other ones SUCK) is a must, and i must sya, the new tweakui is great. Anyways, XP is slightly "less responsive" but is still a good OS.

I would say its definitely a major improvement from Win98, which I was using before. I can probably now boot and shutdown in the time it took me to boot up using Win98.

Although a few of my programs didn't like XP, for example Nero Burning Rom 4 which came with my CDROM burner refused to even install. Office 2000 also had few issues with XP over the system files as well. I decided to use StarOffice 5.2 instead which is OK, but not as good as MS Office 2000. (Perhaps because I haven't got used to using it yet...)

Some DOS games don't work either, for example I couldn't get System Shock to work .

 

[Tygrus_Artesiaoa]

Personally I've got all flavors of MS...and some sick part of me enjoys regeditting them to perfect tweakdom.
All told WinMe tweaked vs Win98SE tweaked at least my style...thru xsetup and reg is more stable...Speed about the same don't have to install as many patches.
I like Xp Pro lately best but my aureal cards have crappy drivers for it as they cut out randomly and require a reboot to reinitialize. I initially woulda liked to get win2k pro but I managed to get winxp pro for a deal...though I hate product activation though I suppose there are way of getting rid of that.

win98se tweaked<winme tweaked<win2k tweaked<winxp tweaked

But then again my idea of tweaked is turn off all the glitter...go through each reg setting...though xsetup makes it easier for most but not all of them. Manually click on what I want to startup, disable stuff like pchealth and state manager and sys restore...etc

Though initial installs of winme is around 550mb compared to win98se 270 and
win2k and winxp are 1gb installs...because of the backups it makes.

 

[Althornin]

I love my (totally legit!) corporate versions of OfficeXP and windowsXP Pro..if i had to use anything with product activation i would croak.
Win2k's GUI is more responsive and fater than Win98SE or winXP's gui. it is streamlined and fast. I might just have to switch back...

 

[pascal]

Althornin

Just use the "classic Windows style" option and it will be like the win2k

 

[Althornin]

Pascal, come on, you think i'm a moron or something :smile:
I did that from minute 2...
Its still SLIGHTLY (but noticably) less responsive than win2k (even after using TweakUI to disable all delays in window openings, etc).
I DO tweak the hell out of my machines, i do KNOW what i am doing (for the most part) so please give me some credit here, ok? I'm not a third grader.
all the "classic widnwos style" does is make it LOOK like win2k, not perform like it.
________________
YHWH is here.....
Use Trillian! AOL Sucks.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Althornin on 2002-03-02 06:17 ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Althornin on 2002-03-02 06:18 ]</font>

 

[pascal]

just checking :smile: