Is it worth upgrading to XP Pro ?

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Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (More info?)

André Gulliksen <andre.gulliksen@start.no> wrote:
| "Kevin Lawton" <socks.kepla.shoes@btinternet.com> skrev i melding
| news:cn2b4a$rpq$1@sparta.btinternet.com...
|| I've been using Windows 2000 Pro for almost four years now and it is
|| 'okay'.
|| Not perfect, by any means, but quite okay for general use.
|| My applications are just 'general use' - internet & e-mail, office
|| apps like
|| word & excel, SQL server 2000 database, photo editing, CD burning,
|| etc. Nothing very esoteric, just 'bread and butter' work.
|| Reliability and efficiency are what I like to see, fancy 'eye candy'
|| like animated icons and screen savers are of no interest and for the
|| sake of efficiency I'd rather be without them.
|| So, the question is: is it worth paying the cost and going to the
|| trouble of
|| upgrading to Windows XP Pro or should I just stick with Windows 2000
|| ? What
|| do I stand to gain - or lose ?
|
| If you're happy with 2K Pro then I suggest you stick to 2K Pro, at
| least until it reaches end of life and you no longer get security
| fixes for it, or until you clearly identify a feature in XP (or any
| other OS) that you would really like.
|
| I chose the upgrade path, but I'd might as well have left it alone. XP
| introduces a whole bunch of new fancy bells and whistles, but I have
| turned of most of them. The only things I have found in XP Pro that
| is better than 2K Pro is handling of multi-monitor setups, better
| application compatibility (particularly games and demos) and faster
| boot time. On the downside is tons of annoying bells and whistles,
| higher hardware requirements and lower stability.

Thanks, André - lower stability ?
This is the first I've heard anyone mention XP Pro being less stable than
Win 2K and would most definitely make a difference to me. Can you give more
details, please ?
Kevin.

 

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Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (More info?)

Kevin Lawton wrote:
> Thanks, André - lower stability ?
> This is the first I've heard anyone mention XP Pro being less stable
> than Win 2K and would most definitely make a difference to me. Can
> you give more details, please ?

I can't give you any hard and fast numbers on claiming that one is more
stable than the other. This is just my experience, so your mileage may vary.
But my Windows 2000 Pro-setup was rock solid for years running, and wouldn't
go belly-up if you hit it with a truck. And multitasking was super smooth.

Since going to XP Pro I have experienced minor instabilities, mostly in
connection with logoff and hibernation. There is also a general feeling of
sluggishness that was not present under 2K Pro, with slow responses, periods
where the system would freeze to a full halt and sluggish multitasking under
heavy CPU load. SP2 seems to have improved this somewhat, but not totally.

Fast user switching also seems to introduce some stability issues, but this
feature can be turned off and/or not used. In the beginning I also had
problems getting all my hardware working properly (such as activating DMA
for my Plextor burner), but this has been resolved.