Windows 2000 or XP?

[Genralkidd]

Which OS would run better on these specs? I intend to use this for simple things like web browsing, watching videos, running DOS applications natively and in a VM, bitcoin mining, and maybe running a FTP file server & IIS website.

Specs:
VIA EPIA PX10000G Pico-ITX Board
VIA C7 @ 1 GHz
2 GB DDR2 RAM @ 800 MHz
VIA UniChrome Pro II Graphics
64 GB Wintec SSD

I'm really hoping that the SSD will be able to make up for the relatively slow CPU, but I don't know which OS would be better in terms of the features I need and the performance of the OS on this hardware.

 

[daswilhelm]

i would think that XP might be safer for web browsing.

 

[photonboy]

Ubuntu would run far better than Windows.

If you are buying a copy of Windows then Windows 8 32-bit MIGHT be the best choice (and Start8 to "fix" the interface if you wish). I tried it on a pretty old computer and it ran surprisingly well (single-core Sempron, 1GB RAM, onboard video). In fact, it replaced XP and I liked W8 better (with Start8).

Windows 8 has a lot of updates, and some people have reported it seemed to run as well as XP on very old hardware.

Here's some tips to optimize W8 on older hardware: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2011906/how-to-optimize-windows-8-on-old-hardware.html

The C7 may or may not work with W8 with a workaround: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-windows_install/install-of-win8-failed-and-computer-is-not/6b8ba67d-b636-439c-b123-58e10e108848

*My suggestion is try the Windows 8.1 free preview (you'd need to Torrent it as it's not hosted at Microsoft but it's good until Jan 2014).

 

[Genralkidd]

Ubuntu would run far better than Windows.

If you are buying a copy of Windows then Windows 8 32-bit MIGHT be the best choice (and Start8 to "fix" the interface if you wish). I tried it on a pretty old computer and it ran surprisingly well (single-core Sempron, 1GB RAM, onboard video). In fact, it replaced XP and I liked W8 better (with Start8).

Windows 8 has a lot of updates, and some people have reported it seemed to run as well as XP on very old hardware.

Here's some tips to optimize W8 on older hardware: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2011906/how-to-optimize-windows-8-on-old-hardware.html

The C7 may or may not work with W8 with a workaround: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-windows_install/install-of-win8-failed-and-computer-is-not/6b8ba67d-b636-439c-b123-58e10e108848

*My suggestion is try the Windows 8.1 free preview (you'd need to Torrent it as it's not hosted at Microsoft but it's good until Jan 2014).

Do you know how many computers I can install Windows 8 Pro on with one license key? I remember Windows licenses used to be one main computer and one laptop computer. I don't know if that's still the case though cause I already have a copy of Windows 8 Pro but I've already installed it once on one computer.

 

[photonboy]

all Windows OS's are single-machine unless you have a volume license which you would pay extra for.

Windows 8 is transferrable to a new machine (Windows 7 OEM wasn't), however the old machine must be de-activated.

 

[Genralkidd]

all Windows OS's are single-machine unless you have a volume license which you would pay extra for.

Windows 8 is transferrable to a new machine (Windows 7 OEM wasn't), however the old machine must be de-activated.

In terms of system requirements and performance, do you think Windows Server 2012 R2 should be relatively the same as Windows 8? They're supposed to be the same OS except the other one has more features for servers.

 

[hang-the-9]

That system will be very slow for anything aside from maybe some file sharing on a NAS. Simple websites it will run, for only a few users, and video would have to be non-HD. There is no need to have a Server OS on that thing unless you are using it for several users (more than 20) to connect to at once.

XP would be a good OS to run that on although it has a lower connection limit than 7 or 8, I think 5 for Home and 10 for Pro. Windows 2000 is just too old and won't run modern web browsers or have security patches for it.

 

[siiruk]

Ｉprefer XP