wHich is better : win2000 or Xp?

[ez_rider]

Hi, everyone.Its been a long time since my last post although I'm still a keen follower of PCmech.
The thing is, I've been using WinMe on my pc for a few years now( maybe two or three) and thought of changing the os. I've narrowed it down to 2 ;its gonna be either win2000 or Xp. Could u tell which of the two o/s is better?
Btw, liked I've said earlier, my pc is about 2-3 years old. Its an AthlonXp2200 with 512DDR ram. Any comments/suggestions are welcome.

Thanks...

[jamesrpm]

Because Microsoft is working on security issues with XP thats the choice I'd make. Older OS not going to be supported as long and not updated.

[rjfvillarosa]

I would go with XP as well, as stated above there will be a better level of security support. As your machine is already working and maybe you are not in a rush to do this why not buy XP and order the SP2 cd from microsoft (it's free) and then you can do a clean install with SP2 and then load all your drivers and other software, doing it this way I find it causes far less problems with software incompatibility. You can always slipstream your new copy of XP with SP2 for a faster install.

[mairving]

I would only use 2K on older machines somewhere < 600Mhz. XP certainly has better driver support and eye candy.

[Dodge7]

I have found Windows 2000 to be incredibly stable. I haven't used XP enough to contrast. I have seen forums where people go back and forth on whether Win 2000 or XP has proven more stable for them.. for many Win 2000 is the one, for others Win XP has proven most stable.

Win 2000 is nice for an older machine, it runs fast on my 850 MHz celeron, with 128 RAM [more memory is nice though]. Its stable. And you don't have to deal with activation either.

all that said, MS is putting their major efforts into XP so keep that in mind also.

[WhatsThisBoxFor?]

I think M$ will be implementing some of Longhorns features into XP, like the Avalon Graphics system (I think). In terms of computers that will handle XP, so anything from 700/800 MHz plus, with 256Mb of Ram plus (although I have stretched this to 128Mb), I chose XP. This means that you can survive well into Longhorn, with maybe not all new technology, but more than if you get Win2000 now and don't upgrade.

[ez_rider]

hi,everyone.Thnks for the replies.Between these 2 o/s , Xp is more stable ,am I correct? Btw, I heard that u need to activate xp.Is it the same for win2000?
thnks...

[Force Flow]

No, 2000 does not require activation.

2000 is more geared towards word processing, email & surfing, while XP is geared toward multimedia and gaming.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by ez_rider hi,everyone.Thnks for the replies.Between these 2 o/s , Xp is more stable ,am I correct?

No, Win2000 and WinXP are both based on the WinNT kernel and stability is about the same for both (meaning very stable).

WinXP (and Win2000) is a lot more stable than the Win9x based OS's (Win95, Win98 and WinME).

Cricket

[bailey]

I use both, w2k is on a older system and xp-pro is on all the others and xp home is on my laptop, w2k will work great for you and if your into a more gamming type system and multimedia sort of stuff, then xp-pro would be my recommendation for you.

[ez_rider]

Hi, again.Pardon me for being so naive by asking so many questions but I like to be on a safe side. I've a lot of files/datas that I'd burnt to Cds.Could I still use these cds on Xp?

Thnks.......

[mystvearn]

Yes, provided if its a stand alone file, and a third party software is not used to make the backups which you could not open it directly. But if you have the third party software, then you can install it on Xp and try opening it.
Easier still, try taking the cd's to other xp computers and try if it works.

[Statica]

Your choice of operating systems should not be based on Product Activation, the assumption here is that you will not attempt to use illegal software. The choice isn't even which OS is more secure, or which will have a longer support cycle. Given MS' record of supporting its OS', it is safe to assume that your Windows 2000 or Win XP will be supported well after your computer goes obsolete.
Your choice should be made more on your hardware; XP is obviously the next step in Windows, and a definite improvement over Windows 2000, but XP also consumes more resources than Win2k.

[Dodge7]

Originally Posted by Statica Your choice should be made more on your hardware; XP is obviously the next step in Windows, and a definite improvement over Windows 2000, but XP also consumes more resources than Win2k.

Yep, if he is running a 2 to 3 year old computer, like I am, Win 2000 has the advantge of running pretty quick and requiring far less memory.

I find Win 2000 is excellent for web, office, and audio stream type uses... but I am not a gamer. If you plan to do multimedia, play games, then I would get extra memory and get XP

Then again, if you use that computer as a second computer, to play around with, and occasionally have to re-fromat the HD and reinstall Windows, as I have, it is nice not to have to re-activate all the time.

[mrmister1]

I agree. It really depends on the speed of your computer. You need a lot more memory to run XP than you need to run 2000, as well as other things. What speed is your processor? I think you should be able to use XP.

[glc]

I'm running a P3-800 with a gig of ram and Win2000. It runs great. No reason for me to upgrade to XP, I'm not a gamer and all my software runs fine. The only downside of 2000 is it takes forever to boot - but being that I only reboot about every 2 weeks, this is a nonissue.

[ez_rider]

Hi, again. These are specs of the pc that I'm using now:

Asus m/b wth Amd Athlon Xp2200
Kingston 512DDRram(pc333)
Seagate Hdd 40g(7200)

Btw, I've got a Hp printer which is about 4 years old.When I checked the printer's software it supported up to Win2000 only. If I install Xp on my pc, will it detect my printer?

thnks...

[mairving]

I would go with XP Home on a system with those specs. It is plenty beefy to run XP. A driver for the HP printer is probably not needed as XP will more than likely find and install it.

[Dodge7]

Yeah, go with XP with those specs

[ez_rider]

Hi. guys. Many thanks 4 all the comments/suggestions that u have given me. I'll definite get Xp 4 my pc. Hopefully, I won't get too many "hiccups" when installing it ! .....Then again I could always count on u guys for help, right !

Thnks again.......

They are both good, like others have said, I believe it depends on your specs, since xp does take up more resources. Anything below 1ghz I use 2000, above that I use XP. XP does boot a bit faster.