News5 mins ago
Windows XP
8 Answers
I have Windows 98SE which version of Windows XP should I buy?
Answers
Best Answer
No best answer has yet been selected by michaelcrick. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.I agree with j2buttonsw, the home edition is the best for you: it has all the practical functionality (NT stability, NTFS file system, improved GUI etc etc), you can directly upgrade from Windows 98SE (keeping all your settings) and, best of all, it is the cheapest. I think rja211077 does the Home version some injustice with regard to networking: you can easily set up a home "workgroup" but you cannot join it to a corporate "domain". In practical terms this means you can have a home "workgroup" network with shared internet and file/printer access but one cannot create a computer account on a Domain Controller of a Windows NT/2000/2003 "Domain" (which is bad for Domain Administrators).
Agreed, a clean install of Windows 98SE is fine and I've had a machine running it for more than 3 years with minimal maintenance. I must be very lucky. However, once they start going wrong Windows 98SE is something I have found hard to fix or patch up: I usually do a clean install because it ends up being easier and quicker. InitiallyI wasn't a fan of XP but since the first service pack, I think it is a pretty stable system. frop (and others) will, no doubt, disagree and recommend you stick with what you know and I see his (her) point. But if you are keen to upgrade then do it to XP Home Edition since the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. I have found XP to be much more stable then Windows 98SE. frop also makes a very good point about being more resource hungry: it is a big installation (approaching 1 GB) and although the minimum RAM requirement is 64 MB, I would double (or even better, quadruple) that. Like all new relationships, you will have your initial doubts (and perhaps regrets) and pet peeves which soon disappear when you discover their inner beauty. Me, I can't let go of Windows 2000...