Which OS is best?

[CluelessInCA]

Hello all;
This may be a biased forum to ask my question, but since I haven't found an "Operating Systems" board, I thought I'd try here.
I've got an Athlon 650 running on an Asus K7V-RM with 512 Meg RAM under Windows 98 SE, and I'm having all kinds of problems, so I'm planning on wiping the hard drive and starting from scratch, but I was thinking perhaps I should change my OS to W2000 or XP. I'd like to solicit opinions on which OS would be best. Even if i stick with Win98SE I'll be purchasing a new CD, so sticking with what I've got isn't really going to save me any money.
I'm not a VERY demanding user--some games, Net surfing via dialup, word processing and spreadsheet and occasional database apps--but I'd still like to get the best combination of stable and fast without taking up too much system resources just for the OS.
Any and all opinions would be appreciated!
Thanks--CinCA

 

[vagabond]

OK, just so you don't get burned by the other members.

You're not giving enough information on your system ie. HDD capacity; GPU, etc.

Seeing as you're not a demanding type, do what you wanted to do in the first place. A clean format and reinstall.

If you read enough in this forum, you'll learn that every WINDOZE user doesn't matter if it's 3.11 or XP has had to FORMAT one time or another.

I myself have formatted so many times, it's pathetic. That's why I have LINUX on a partition in case WINDOZE does ever become unstable.

A good suggestion is an Anti-Virus program and a firewall will definitely help with WINDOZE woes. I'm still running W98SE and as long as there are updates out there I'll keep using it. It's very stable if it's installed correctly. I'm not ignorant to XP or 2000. I've used both OSs before but I still find 98SE as a very workable platform for what you need.

BTW, you should have posted this in the WINDOWS 95/98/ME forum.

Another thing, if you do format the hard drive, make sure you have all the neccessary drivers and driver updates. Don't forget to update the BIOS on your mobo in case you haven't done so already.



<font color=blue> You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink it!</font color=blue>

 

[upec]

I would go with either Windows 2000 or XP both are a lot more stable than Windows 98.

 

[btvillarin]

I'll have to agree with vagabond with a few things, such as having to do a clean install. But in terms of Windows cheezing out after packing stuff into it, it truly is user usage that bloats it up.

When working with Windows 98, I've found that <A HREF="http://content.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/backissu.htm" target="_new">these articles</A> have been great in expanding my horizons with Windows. (<A HREF="http://www.langa.com" target="_new">Fred Langa</A> started me in wanting to make computers as stable as possible. ) Anyways, for you, the articles I'd recommend reading is:

<i>• System Setup Secrets Updated for 2001
• Bullet Proof Your Windows Setup
• Scrub Your Hard Disk Clean (Series)
• Resource Leaks (Series)
• Making Your PC Secure Online (Series)
• RealWorld Answers about Virtual Memory</i>
• <A HREF="http://www.freetune.com/most_popular_pages.htm" target="_new">Winmag Explorer Most Popular Articles</A>

If you setup your system correctly and stably right after the clean install, udpate it, and image it (with Drive Image or Norton Ghost), you should almost never have to clean install that operating system.

I personally love Windows 2000 and XP, and won't look back. But for what you do, it should be just fine.

Recommended apps:
• <A HREF="http://www.jfitz.com/RAMpage/index.html" target="_new">RAMpage</A> - refer to the article from Fred Langa to see how he utilizes this
• <A HREF="http://www.outertech.com" target="_new">Cacheman</A> - optimize your system to use your memory as best as possible
• <A HREF="http://www.jasons-toolbox.com/scriptsentry.asp" target="_new">Script Sentry</A> - check possible files for bad scripts before being run
• <A HREF="http://www.grisoft.com" target="_new">AVG Antivirus</A> (or <A HREF="http://www.pandasoftware.com/" target="_new">Panda Antivirus</A>) - recommended AV software; 1st is free, the latter costs $

I hope this helps...it's <b>gotta</b>!

Bryan

<A HREF="http://www.btvillarin.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=329" target="_new"><b>My System Rig</b></A> (courtesy of <A HREF="http://www.btvillarin.com" target="_new">btvillarin.com</A>)

 

[CluelessInCA]

Whoops!
Sorry--I TRIED to include all relevant specs... I've got a 14Gb HDD and some crappy no-name graphics card that I'm replacing with a GeForce4 MX 440 64MB, and a SoundBlaster Live! MP3+ sound card.