XP or 2k

Ok, after the great response to my thread Your thoughts on Windows Vista, I began to be curious about other versions of Windows. After reading through a couple of different threads and tutorials, I have gathered that the average Windows tech suggests Windows 2000 to any other Windows. Why would this be?? I know I'm going to get responses like "google it" but why not ask here in the OS forum where people can give me exact reasons to questions that might come up. If you know of any websites that have explanations, please give me the link so I can read them.

Well, Windows 2000 is actually NT 5 and a natural progression from NT 4. Some techs might prefer it for that reason, as it is more familiar to them.

XP is a perfectly good Windows OS, and is more modern.

If you are having to work with old hardware you might prefer Windows 2000 as it is less demanding on resources than XP.

Some businesses may be aiming to go straight to Vista, leaving out XP altogether?

For programming and security, would one rise above the other? or is it just personal preference??

As already suggested...if you have the hardware I would go XP....

I find it fast and stable

XP loves RAM.....and harddrive space....

If the hardware is older...2k is fine....although it boots slower and requires more restarts with configuration changes

MLF

I did the oposite. Went to XP from NT skipping 2k on workstations. I believe in my limited wisdom, that was an excellent choice. XP was released in the fall of 2001 and is an improvement over 2k. It took a while to upgrade NT servers to Active directory capable server 2000 and XP was ready.

Well I guess I will just stick with my Windows XP/RHEL config until the 64 bit Vista comes out (unless Vista turns to be a disapointment). Thanks for all the responses and please continue to speak your minds.

I upgraded all our 2k machines to XP. As others have stated, XP is a perfectly good OS if you have the hardware to handle it. In the beginning it was a bit shaky though. Be sure to immediately update to SP2 offline before going onto an insecure network.

Having the remote desktop is a nice feature also.

Hi,

I am currently running Windows 2000 SP4 and also Windows Server 2003 on my laptop.
Why not XP? XP is not a bad OS. XP has NT 5 kernel like 2000 and 2003. XP kernel is little improved compared to 2000 (in fact its version is 5.1, 2000 is 5.0 and 2003 is 5.2 - again little improved). However, the user part of XP was always somehow "ugly" for me. And since Service Pack 2 there is something I don't like either - Security center.

As a low level programmer I have to say that having 2000 is better because you are forced to create programs "using old API". This cause that your programs work on all 2000, XP, 2003. If I run only XP or 2003 I will tend to use new API that are not available on older OS.

However, I have also tried XPSP1 as well as XPSP2. From all these I rate 2003 the best because it has all the kernel improvements from XPSP2 (and more) and is not as "ugly" as XP. It needs little more configuration to be a good workstation (because it is server OS), but tutorials can be googled on this and after a while playing with the settings it is very nice and reliable desktop OS.

i just got a xp pro cd for the first time today...

should i go home and install it over my 2k installation...

the real question is ... WHAT WILL I GAIN BY INSTALLING XP PRO?

It will look pretty?

Well unhappy old chap, don't forget that you can dual boot ;)

Quote:

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WHAT WILL I GAIN BY INSTALLING XP PRO?

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1. The privilege of using Microsoft's finest operating system. Actually it is the most functional, and is very stable and fast.
2. The honour of being mistrusted by William Gates III and have some exceptionally poor quality DRM stuff dumped on your box :D No, I don't like WGA one bit.............it causes problems that people seem to blame us for.
3. Experience! if you don't make the jump now, you will find it that much more difficult to move to Vista. I never like to be more than one OS behind, unless I have one for legacy support.

OK, I am running Windows 2000 on this one and XP Pro on the box next to it, but that is just the order in which I built them.

Apart from the DRM/WGA thing I am quite happy with XP and with Windows 2000

I would recommend that you give it a try, but you might like to set it up in "traditional mode" as you will find that more familiar to begin with ;)

Also if you have the ability to, I would skip the upgrade from 2k to XP and just do a full format and fresh install to XP. I have had some slowness issues when upgrading from 2k to xp. Some do some don't.

Yeah...I with xmaddness there....I dont like upgrading OSes.....always go for the format\install....cause if you upgrade...you just bring all the crap from the previous install over.

A format\install will truly give you what XP is all about...

MHO as always

MLF