I dont really hear much said about windows 2000, on a home PC. I have seen it a couple times over at a friends, looks alot like windows 98, however he claims it is VERY reliable, dosent crash as much, and has additional features. I think its about time to get away from windows 98, I see the blue screen of death to many times. My overall questions about windows 2000 is...

Is it any good?

Does it use the same file system as windows 98?

Is there alot of software(general applications), out for it?

Is it good for home?

Let me know, So I can at least catch up to the times :)

Win2K, In my honest opinion, is by far the most stable Windows OS. It works great. I have yet to be faced with a compatibility issue. It uses FAT32 or NTFS, so you can chose during install. I have been using it since it was released, and it has crashed maybe 5 times (tops). It does have better features, as it is based on NT. It is a great choice!

gotta agree there, w2000 is much much better, drivers are already included for most hardware devices, and no crashes so far on my w2000 pro machine (running for 2 months)

Go with ntfs file system as it is much more efficient and you can still see fat32 drives from your ntfs drive (but not the other way round).

I havent come across any software that is not compatible and I use a LOT.

For me the leap from 98 to 2000 was like from 95 to 98, I would never go back.

Philco

Windows 2000 is the bomb, period....................................... ok a bunch of periods ;)

Do I have to install windows 2000, or can I get the upgrade from 98-2000?

You can upgrade, but it's a different kernel, so it's best to backup your data, format the drive, and fresh install.

Win 2000 pro rocks

I have used win 95, 98, NT4.0 SP6a and now win 2000 pro.

By far the best.
Cheers

I run win2k server.....and no problems yet........

I run Win2k pro at home... Ever since I did a fresh install , instead of upgrade. I've only experienced minor problems. Nothing that a quick visit to Windows Update, or latest drivers wouldnt fix.

I know many people who use Windows 2k and love it...

The only question I would have is what you do with your home computer?

If you use it for business oriented work, then it is most definately a great choice. I like the fact that IIS is built in and you can create at least subwebs to work from. I have it on my laptop, and anytime I travel I can bring my latest development with me.

If you play any graphic intensive games, then it may not be the choice you want to make. I never got W2K to properly run alot of the games on the market now-a-days.

Also, I built a pc that just absolutely hated W2K, it would blue-screen and literally delete its own registry. It really had little to do with W2K, and more to do with the hardware manufacturer and their drivers. Eventually I went up to Windows XP Pro and have never had a problem with it. I have heard the opposite though that people who could run W2K couldn't run XP.

Good Luck,

without experience of Win2000 I'd probably look at XP as well. Has the stability of 2000 get the bells and whistles of 98/ME.

So yes, it depends on what you'll be using it for. XP's drivers are pretty common now for most things.

Greg Moore

XP, in my opinion, is just a bit too much, I enjoy the simplicity and ease of use Win2K

I run Win2k Pro both at home and work and like it. When I had DSL at home I installed the IIS and it worked great for running a small site from home. Bummer part was when I changed over to cable it disabled the IIS somehow and now I can't do that. Anyone know why or have any suggestions?

Win2k is better than 98 but, I still crash it and it always hangs up on shutdown for some reason. I think it's a driver problem but I haven't been able to isolate it.

Also, Win2k does have some issues with USB since the NT kernel didn't support it at all.

Overall it's better than the previous versions.

Go for either Win2000 Pro or WinXP Pro... either will be fine and better than 98. I run both at home (but only had XP for the past few days now) and they're both rock solid. I've been running Win2000 for over a year and I've only seen 1 BSoD (my program did something naughty hehe) and I do a lot on that machine -- programming (C++, C#), games, and web dev (of course!).

Don't like XP's new look? you can change it to look like Win2000/98/95 with a few mouse clicks.

Like others have said... it's better to do a fresh install. And if you really wanna take advantage of the NT kernel then run NTFS and say bye bye to FAT32.

Originally posted by Lamont
I run Win2k Pro both at home and work and like it. When I had DSL at home I installed the IIS and it worked great for running a small site from home. Bummer part was when I changed over to cable it disabled the IIS somehow and now I can't do that. Anyone know why or have any suggestions?


Check with your cable company. They probably disabled port 80 requests coming into the network so you can't run a webserver from home.

MoSupaFly,

I'll bet that's the case. I was hoping it was something in my box I could override. Their info says I can't run a server from home yet so, it sounds like I'm out of luck for now.

Thanks for the info.

Originally posted by Lamont
MoSupaFly,

I'll bet that's the case. I was hoping it was something in my box I could override. Their info says I can't run a server from home yet so, it sounds like I'm out of luck for now.

Thanks for the info.


Yeah... I wish I could have another explination for it but I suspect that's what's happening. :(

What is the infrastructure of your home network, do you have a router, was it recently added, is port 80 open for requests on that router etc.

Samuel,

No router (yet). Just a Motorola cable modem and NIC card.

Hrmm, well that rules that out.

Do you need to run ISS?

Setting up apache for dev work or even an intranet is a very easy thing to do.

Takes about 30 megs after everything is installed and will auto start etc. blah blahc

Originally posted by Lamont
I run Win2k Pro both at home and work and like it. When I had DSL at home I installed the IIS and it worked great for running a small site from home. Bummer part was when I changed over to cable it disabled the IIS somehow and now I can't do that. Anyone know why or have any suggestions?

Win2k is better than 98 but, I still crash it and it always hangs up on shutdown for some reason. I think it's a driver problem but I haven't been able to isolate it.

Also, Win2k does have some issues with USB since the NT kernel didn't support it at all.

Overall it's better than the previous versions. Well my other computer's PS/2 ports are messed up, so that computer has a USB mouse and keyboard, and they work just fine.

Samuel,

I have to confess to being a complete noob in this area. Your suggestion on Apache sent me to their site to look at how to install it under Win2k. I hadn't thought of that. Thanks.

Now I just need to find out if port 80 is blocked to my system.

I'm new to the networking game. (I've owned a lot of computers since my first Osborne I. How I lived before that I don't know :stickout )

I have to admit that, even with all the problems, Windows is a big advance over CPM or DOS.

I just checked with my cable provider. Port 80 is blocked and they have no plans to change it. :angry:

Its ok, you can change apache easily to work on port 8080 so no worries there.

Try installing Apache, PHP, MySQL through one of the installers out there, and look at the http.conf file, simple text document opened by notepad and familiarize yourself with it.

COOL :D

I'll give it a try. Thanks for the info. If I run into any snags I'll let you know.

I hope they aren't blocking port 8080 too.

I agree about the stability of win2k, I've been using the pro version on my home pc for over a year and never saw it crash, and when your used to windows 98 blue screening a few times every day, it makes a big difference.