I am currently using WIN98 SE, mainly with Office 2000.

I am always loath to upgrade when things are OK and I took a giant
step by moving to Office 2000.

Now, Windows 2000 Professional beckons .... and the hardware is more
than adequate.

Should I or shouldn't I?

I saw the title of your question and thought at once, not a second of
hesitation: YES.

Let me answer the question mainly from my professional view as a
"power-user".
I used Win89 SE for a long time on adequate hardware and I was never
satisfied. There were several problems neither myself nor my computer
dealer could solve. When running several programs parallel (i.e. two
browsers, a graphic software, Excel and a design software) the system
very often notified al lack of ram although there was more than enough
(512 Mb). I had to close programs. It took me about 6 months to find
out, that the memory handling of Win98 SE was inefficient. I then used
a memory managing software and the problem almost disappeared.
But the second problem was never solved: I had "blue-screens" at least
3-4 times a day and the computer could only be reactivated by
rebooting.
Besides those problems printing documents was a problem as well. It
was almost impossible to stop printing when necessary.
The whole thing was really frustrating. I had spent quite a lot of
money on a fast computer but the usability was very, very poor.
One day about a year ago we made a mistake when trying to re-configure
the Win98 SE system and could not restart the PC at all. Iīm very
conservative in view of using new operating systems as they are very
often quite buggy. Stability is more important to me than the latest
super-features. But the frustration with the 98 was so enormous that I
decided to give Win2000 professional a chance.
What happened ?
After the easy installation of the new operation system ALL problems
had disappeared, my PC was about 30 % faster and I havenīt seen a
SINGLE blue screen since then. Stopping print jobs is a matter of a
click and when a program doesnīt react it can be stopped by the
excellent task manager of Win2000, which is by far better than the one
of Win89.
So do yourself a favor and change to Win2000 professional. Iīm sure
you wonīt regret it.


till-ga

---

Request for Answer Clarification by megagaga-ga on 19 Apr 2003 04:03 PDT

Hi, Till

Just the response that I had hoped for.

So, I will give it a go and I'll pop your stars up as soon as my
system re-starts ....

Now, you will have to endure the agony with me.

Sorry about that!

Meg

---

Clarification of Answer by till-ga on 19 Apr 2003 07:30 PDT

Hi megagaga-ga,

fine that my answer satisfied you. See also the comment of my dear
colleaugue pinkfreud.
BTW: in some cases you may have to download w2000 drivers  (I had to
do so for my HP Deskjet Printer). But thatīs not really a problem, Iīm
sure.

regards

till-ga

Hi, Till

It's worked like a dream. 

Many thanks.

However, I've also been advised that there some stuff that won't run
on WIN2000. I don't think it's going to affect me though ....

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

CRASH!

I love my Windows 2000 Professional! It's absolutely the most stable
operating system I've ever used.

How can I disagree with 2 of the best experts anywhere? Wife and I
find Win 98 and 1996 Lotus are adequate for our needs but neither of
us are "power users". At work she uses win 98 and microsoft word at
least 3 years old. She says the word is easier to use than the Lotus.
Win 98 was a big improvement over win 95, perhaps because we don't
upgrade anything. We used to upgrade, but mysterious troubles appear,
so if it ain't broke we don't fix it.   Neil

I have WIN98SE also, but is it better to buy the upgrade version or
the full version of WIN2000 Pro?