So to get the best out of the system hardware, I should buy XP?
Because I heard that I could use 98SE, but he told me I would want to go for 2000/XP Pro.
So the newer the hardware systems, the better if I go for newer OS, correct?
Just wanted to know.

Yep [img]smile.gif[/img] .

Go with XP.

98se was good but much modern software will only be XP compatable. Xp is good once patched up [img]graemlins/heee.gif[/img]

I've heard that XP 'hogs' your systems resorces, is that true, and a problem?

Yes, but its not that big a problem on a decent system - and anyway, if you have more than 512Mb RAM win98 can't use it effciently anyway, so winXP is more effcient even though it uses more resources if you loads of RAM.

And winXP is more stable and is still supported by microsoft which 98 is not.

The only time you would want to use win98 these days is for legacy software that dosent run on winXP, or if you have less than 256Mb RAM in which case you can run short.

I'd use Win 2000 instead, doesn't hog resources (as much as XP) plus XP looks terrible... [img]smile.gif[/img]

I noiticed a massive peformance improvment when i upgraded from 98 SE to XP Pro, many improvments, i especially like how quickly it boots. Anyway there is a definate improvment and as Andrewas mentioned it is much more stable, personally the OS has never crashed for me, I mean applications crash, and rarly explorer also crashes but i have never had to reboot due to a crash.

Will XP be around for a long time or will Microsoft bring out a new OS anything soon?

Around 2006 should see the release of Longhorn (if it's still called that then) which is not a separate OS on it's own but rather an upgrade to XP. A whole lot of changes will take place with the upgrade however, including a new file system meaning that you may as well have bought yourself a new OS.

[ 01-13-2004, 07:47 AM: Message edited by: Bokken ]

Looks like it... MS wouldn't release something so soon and with how XP is doing, and the things they are still doing to improve it, I guess they wouldn't release a new OS until they solve ALL of the problems of XP. So basically the least is we still have a year of XP only, but we will see what's in store for us during this time... ;)

Service Pack 2 is nearby... I hope they do include the pop-up blocker for IE... [img]smile.gif[/img]