Should we upgrade to Win 2000 or Win XP?
Our office has 5 computers networked together: 2 XP Pro, 2 Win 98 SE
and 1 Win 2000.  The boss has a Win 98.  He is computer-literate, but
hates change and hates the idea of XP.  However, many programs that we
want are requiring 2000 or XP (currently MX Project Standard 2003) so
that he has reluctantly given me permission to upgrade.  His computer
has 128M RAM and a 12 gig hard drive. Will we be more successful with
Win 2000 or Win XP?

finegardener...

2000, absolutely. I was/am just like your boss, and found
XP to be little more than a glitzy attempt by MS to emulate
or surpass the lovely GUI (Graphical User Interface) that
Apple has provided from day 1. I personally don't think
they succeeded, and, in the meantime, they've wasted a
lot of system resources with glitz like cascading and 
fading menus.

Underneath all the trappings, 2000 and XP are about the same,
with little difference as far as actual operation goes. But
2000 is a considerably smaller installation which does all
that XP can do with less fuss and distraction.

I haven't yet come across a program that would run on XP
that wouldn't run on 2000.

Additionally, Windows 2000 can be set up to emulate Windows
98 by choosing Classic Desktop and Classic Folders in 
Windows Explorer -> Tools -> Folder Options -> General Tab.

Another thing that will make him feel more at home is to
r-click on the Taskbar, select Properties, and uncheck
Use Personalized Menus on the General tab. This will 
make the Start Menu behave the way it did in WIN98.


Both 2000 and XP will benefit by increased RAM. 256MB is
a minimum, and I'd recommend 512MB.

Likewise with the hard drive. You can get an idea of
how much space he's using besides the WIN98 installation
by r-clicking on the Windows folder and seeing what the
total MBs are for the folder (actually, I'm not sure
that works in WIN98, but it does in 2000).

Anyway, a Windows 2000 (or XP) installation is going
to take much more space than WIN98, so if his hard
drive is anywhere near as full as 9GB, a larger drive
would be advisable. Additionally, if you can get him
a drive with higher RPMs, Windows 2000 (or XP) will 
let him feel the difference as faster system response.

Finally, I'm assuming he hasn't been the only WIN98
user to get fed up with system freezes due to a design
flaw in how the OS recovers RAM no longer in use.
He'll be happy to know that will never happen again!
On rare occasions, a driver conflict may cause a 
blue screen, but it's soooo much more stable than
WIN98 that he can't help but feel good about it.

Let me know if there's any other considerations
I didn't mention.


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sublime1-ga

Execellent and thorough, plus you said just what my boss wanted to
hear about XP and MAC OS.  Thanks for the help.

I'm pretty much like your boss

However it became necessary to test stuff on Win 2k and XP-Pro so I
got another machine with 'drive caddies' and a load of inexpensive HDs
- that way I could simply physically swap drives to change setups

XP also has a 'Classic' setting that is less offensive than the XP 'eye candy'

- unlike Win 2K, XP requires 'activation' which is annoying when one
changes the hardware configuration of a machine.

Sublime is spot on about upgrading RAM and the Hard Disk.

It is also probable that your boss's machine could do with a processor
upgrade, which would probably mean a motherboard upgrade ... and
probably a new case ...

I am going to suggest a compromise, your boss might like it.

Get an inexpensive machine (say Dell - but one of the older models -
one pays a fortune for the last .5 ghz) get rid of the screen and get
a KVM (keyboard Video Mouse) switch and let him run two machines on
the same monitor etc.

That way he can gradually migrate to XP or 2K, yet run NT based Apps
at the press of a button. All data should be on the Network anyway (as
if that is possible !)

He might take a fancy to his 'new box' 
- he might not, it does not matter that much.

I'm writing this on a Win95 OSR/2 P160 - yet I have a few other
machines KVMed up and turned off.

Tell him you are building a S100 setup 
- if he is fairly old and techy he'll see the joke

finegardener...

Thanks very much for the rating and the tip!

The lack of the need to re-activate the installation,
mentioned by frde-ga is, indeed, another plus for 2000,
and I'm glad it was mentioned.

sublime1-ga