XP or 98 SE

[Baztian]

I really don´t know anymore. At this side, everyone loves XP and says it´s so stable you will need a nuclear device to let it crash, and at the other side you have people who say that XP sux and that only Win98 SE is THE OS. Which one of them is more stable, which one is more prone to crash?

I´m going to install one of them (NOT both, mind you) on my brand new rig, a shiny AMD Athlon XP 1700+, Abit kr7a 133, 256 Mb Infineon DDR2100, GeForce 3 Ti200 and 40 Gb hdd.

Could anyone point out the pro´s and con´s of both to me? And which one should be the best for my rig?

Thanks,

Baztian

 

[reptilej]

i had win98 se for a long time, and i thought it was ok. i did have problems of course and so decided to get win xp because i heard it was so great. so now i have win xp. it looks different and acts different. but there's still little problems with it. so for me win xp hasn't been the infallible superhero that many portray it but microsoft has very good tech support and win xp is probably a better bet than win98 se.

repeat after me, we are all individuals!

 

[Zlash]

XP and the stability between the two is night and day.

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[delpart]

Just a couple of points. XP is much more stable than 98. That's because the programs do not have direct access to the hardware. Everything goes through something called the Hardware Abstraction Layer or HAL. If the program you are using has faulty code, it will rarely crash the system. Win98 is less driver finicky and will let you change hardware settings like i/o, memory, or irq much easier than XP. Overall even though there will probably be a service pack 1 for XP soon, it is in my opinion the OS of choice if you must get a new OS now. Otherwise wait until SP1 and get use Win98 until then.

en Xristos

 

[jihiggs]

the average user has not need for consern, in my opinion, anything based on the nt kernal is better than 98se.

how do you shoot the devil in the back? what happens if you miss? -verbal

 

[WindowsXP]

http://www.windowsxpforums.com/reasons_get_windowsxp_professional.htm
http://www.windowsxpforums.com/reasons_get_windowsxp_home.htm

Hope this helps

 

[ComputerGeek101]

I am going to have to say XP, about a few months ago I would of gone w/ 98 SE only becuase alot of drivers were not designed for XP, but now they are becomming more and more common so its XP all the way.
Tedro

 

[DrChaos]

As a general rule, how new (What year?) should software be to be compatable with XP?

I would like to know how much software I would lose by upgrading (if I don't set up dual os).

Thanks.

 

[Baztian]

Well, then XP it is. Thank you guys.

Baztian

 

[Stain]

XP has a compatability feature that allows you to run programs as if they were on a previous windows system so in theary you shouldn't have any software you can't run on WinXP. Although I've never had to use it as I have never had any sorftware problems with WinXP just driver issues which are now resolved.

 

[xyz]

<A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/software/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=23627#23627" target="_new">Have a look</A>

<b><font color=red><i>"All delays are dangerous in war."</b></font color=red></i>

 

[lemonlemon]

Depends what you plan on doing. Simply put, if you plan on playing games mostly, which it seems you are judging from your hardware, and those include older games, than go with 98se. As long as you don't screw around too much with it, 98se should be pretty stable. However, if most games that you plan on playing are new, or any performance loss won't matter because your hardware will get max fps anyway, go with xp. Most current popular games (such as q3, ut, wc3, nwn, etc.) run fine, though i hear counter-strike runs awkwardly on some systems. If your just buying that geforce3 just for, uh, spreadsheets and other apps, xp is the way.