I'm just about to purchase a new PC, and was wondering whether I should get Windows XP Pro or Windows 2000.
I'll be using the PC mostly for programming and have no interest in games/videos etc.
Does anyone have any opinions on which I should get? Sorry if this subject has been thrashed already.
Andy
I dont know much about 2000, but I'm using Windows XP Pro and I havent had any problems with it yet, there are many false criticisms like XP being an OS for teletubbies, but if you dont like the interface, you can change it back to 2000 style. Other than that XP is basically 2000 anyway, with a few new features, I'd go for XP because 2000 really doesnt have anything over it.
Alternatively Linux rulez, but since you're in the windows programming section you probably wont be too interested in that.
Although I have windows 2000 and that is the way I prefer it. I would rather go with windows XP because you will get used to programming for an os that is more skinnable than windows XP and anticipate things more readily than the assumptions you might make with win2k. Otherwise, they are basically the same.
If you are thinking of win xp I would urge you to stay away from via based motherboards. There are too many unsolved issues with usb, and GeForce cards. It may be the fastest chipset but it seems to be flawed. Some usb devices are now being manufactured and put into packaging that says that there is no guarantee that this item will work on a via chipset based system. By the way most amd chipset systems need a closer look because often mobo manufacturers will use the via south bridge chip.It is this chip that is responsible for usb,pci and ide transfers. There is also a problem with data corruption when moving large files between hdds.
known affected chipsets kt133,kt133a kt266,kt266a .
Personally if you have not bought your computer yet then i would specify a board based on an ali magik 1 revision c chipset. This offers good performance and good compatibility and stability. Well that is if you are going to be using an amd athlon/duron/palomino.
Last edited by Stoned_Coder; 01-13-2002 at 08:52 PM.
Free the weed!! Class B to class C is not good enough!!
And the FAQ is here :- http://faq.cprogramming.com/cgi-bin/smartfaq.cgi
Like Win95, Win98 and the crappy ME when released, WIN XP is full of bugs. The problems with raw sockets, UP&P to name the most obvious.
I would go to WIN2000. Get XP in a year or so when we have solved the bugs for M$ and they have bothered to update it.
If you do get XP ensure you have a good fire wall and have used the security patches.
"Man alone suffers so excruciatingly in the world that he was compelled to invent laughter."
Friedrich Nietzsche
"I spent a lot of my money on booze, birds and fast cars......the rest I squandered."
George Best
"If you are going through hell....keep going."
Winston Churchill
Stoned coder: I use WinXP with a via kt133 chipset on an asus board, and I have also used a Geforce 2 and 3 extensively. I've had no problems at all with my PC apart from when I have all four IDE channels filled, (primary master, primary slave, secondary master, secondary slave). This tends to cause some problems initially with some hardware, but I dont know if this is realted to my via board and it certainly has nothing to do with XP, since I had the same problems with 98SE.
It's true that it is usually best to wait a while before buying any new M$ OS, but as XP is built on 2000 anyway its not as new as it might seem, and you certainly cant compare it to 95, 98 and ME because they are a different line of OS's, XP is built on NT as is 2000 which is far more stable. As for bugs, there arent any noticable problems, certainly in terms of stability and reliability it is impressive, and as far as security is concered the latest patches from MS as well as the imminent service packs will bring XP up to scratch.
In short for all that XP offers it isnt worth buying 2000 now and XP as well in the future. Especially if you have firewalls etc set up you might as well go for XP now. If you have 2000 already and no security then it might be best to put 2000 on your new PC and install XP in a while when M$ has had a chance to work out the bugs.
Robert if you are one of the lucky ones that has a good via board then good luck to you but a small look around at hardware forums will show you to be in a minority with most of us experiencing multiple issues.
Do you have a webcam? does it ever freeze? do you lose the root hub when it does so that anything on the other usb port on that hub stops working immediately. This is normally non recoverable by hotplugging. Do you experience any usb devices being detected as an unknown device at boot up ?
I have major usb issues, data corruption, inability to use 4x agp, all this with a "supposedly good quality" asus A7V. All of these problems occur without overclocking of any kind.
Benchmark your ide transfers. Do they come up as expected?
Most dont.
Run 3dmark2001 continuously for 45 minutes. I bet you cant. 3dmark2001 seems to almost certainly bring on the infinite loop error.
try these things and then see if you are still happy with a via chipset.
Free the weed!! Class B to class C is not good enough!!
And the FAQ is here :- http://faq.cprogramming.com/cgi-bin/smartfaq.cgi
Have to agree with Stoned_Coder. I have an abit apollo 133a chipset. Both a voodoo 3dfx and GeForce 2 Titanium can't use AGPx4 (I tried nearly every AGP byte in the BIOS). If I overclock it screws up - consistent draw.dll errors with just about anything. The bummer about that last problem was that it was intermittent
making it difficult to work out that it was a single problem.
I believe the AGP timing problem is down to via not licensing the AGP technology from it's manufacturers and using reverse engineering instead to save cash - with inevitable consequences.
The only thing that caught my eye with winxp (so far) is gdi+ which seems to add some fancy looks (double-buffered windows, non-rectangular regions without the performance death on redraw).
My understanding is that win2k has just recently matured into a stable os - after numerous bugfixes. If I were you I would honestly wait a bit until the major issues that are bound to arise have been identified and...well, identified really.
On the other hand, if you have a wad of cash, buy them both. Apparenly winxp doesn't permit/recognise linux partitions. If true, I wonder why?
BTW, stoned_coder, assuming that your moniker is also a 'hobby', how do you manage to code, let alone think? I got ****faced over the festive season with some of the stinkiest skunk imaginable and tried to write some code. It was only the timely intervention of 'Castle Wolfie' that rescued me from complete catatonia. In all fairness, I did manage to type 'WinMain' but kind of lost the plot after that.
I have a AthlonXP on a Epox MB with the AMD / VIA chips and a GForce2 card at 4x. It runs on Win98SE and 2000 with no problems.
A couple of other programmers here have similar / bigger systems, one on Linux/2000 the other on 2000. All running with no problems.
Does this mean the problem is in the chipset or the OS?
Remember XP is trying to track your systems hardware to ensure you have valid copy. Could be a bug in that, deliberate or otherwise. Would not be the first time M$ compeated unfairly.
I still remember Win95a eating a hole in my and a lot of other HD's because of its virtual memory settings (the reason it scans the HD now if not shut down properly).
>>I'd go for XP because 2000 really doesnt have anything over it.
Except security and testing.
XP is caught in the backward compatibility trap. Has to work with old M$ stuff and new. 2000 has priveliges (access levels) to restrict programs / users. In XP everything / body has full or root access. eg no security. Thats why it comes with a firewall. To try to patch the holes.
"Man alone suffers so excruciatingly in the world that he was compelled to invent laughter."
Friedrich Nietzsche
"I spent a lot of my money on booze, birds and fast cars......the rest I squandered."
George Best
"If you are going through hell....keep going."
Winston Churchill
