I'm supposed to recommend an OS for my group to use on our new machines. We are going to be using Websphere Studio Application Developer 4.0 and some Rational Tools. It's between Windows 2000 and XP. I've heard XP is "buggy." Is this true? Any recommendations?
Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!
Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!
-
Congratulations Chriss Miller on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!
How is Windows XP?
- Thread starter jmk2z
- Start date
Personally I have found Windows XP extremely stable and not 'buggy' at all. I've been using it for 5 months now and compared to 98 it's brilliant. I used to have blue screens every day but no more. We use 2000 at work and pcs are always locking up and crashing. (Could be how the IT department set it up though!) Learn something new every day *:->*
You might want to look at the following articles:
When/If you go to look at these web pages, you will be asked to Register.
1. It is a Free registration, which you might benefit from.
2. You CAN enter dummy (false) info just to get into the articles and then not worry about your info getting into the wrong database.
"Businesses should go with Win2K Pro and ignore XP"
And more recently, by the same author:
"Here are the five business benefits of Windows XP Pro"
However, remember that there are approximately 633 post-SP2 fixes that Microsoft knows about.
Look at a few more web pages:
"Windows 2000 Post-SP2 Hotfixes"
"New Win2K Post-SP2 Security Rollup Dos and Don'ts"
Good Luck,
jrbbldr
When/If you go to look at these web pages, you will be asked to Register.
1. It is a Free registration, which you might benefit from.
2. You CAN enter dummy (false) info just to get into the articles and then not worry about your info getting into the wrong database.
"Businesses should go with Win2K Pro and ignore XP"
And more recently, by the same author:
"Here are the five business benefits of Windows XP Pro"
However, remember that there are approximately 633 post-SP2 fixes that Microsoft knows about.
Look at a few more web pages:
"Windows 2000 Post-SP2 Hotfixes"
"New Win2K Post-SP2 Security Rollup Dos and Don'ts"
Good Luck,
jrbbldr
XP was built from Win2k platform
Personally i find XP bootup way faster than win2k, and it is as stable as Win2k, you need to defrag more often than win2k, or else your system will slow down
you need to test out on one station first to see if it works on all the software you want to run
if you do run XP, just turn all the crap off under performance tab. there are some issue with IE 6, i find some software will not run on WinXP, drivers become much better support nowaday
good luck
Personally i find XP bootup way faster than win2k, and it is as stable as Win2k, you need to defrag more often than win2k, or else your system will slow down
you need to test out on one station first to see if it works on all the software you want to run
if you do run XP, just turn all the crap off under performance tab. there are some issue with IE 6, i find some software will not run on WinXP, drivers become much better support nowaday
good luck
First of all i hate xp but...im still running it although i probably wont be after tonight or tom. night. The only horrible thing is i have tried 3 video cards and none of them EVER work no matter what i do i have spent the last 2 days after i get off work trying to fix it so my BRAND NEW GeForce4 card will work. First i...
1. downloaded and updated all my xp files in the windows update
2. downloaded all the new drivers for the card from 2 different places and niether of them worked
3.i checked here in the forums and thought i found a answer but when i did what was told it didnt help at all still the same old problem.
So i wouldnt suggest xp unless you dont mind finding 40 different hardware issues i had other issues but i got them fixed and they werent clear and easy fixes either it took me an hour or two just to figure out how to fix them. You can do what you want (which im sure thats what you are going to do) but i dont suggest xp go with 2k
1. downloaded and updated all my xp files in the windows update
2. downloaded all the new drivers for the card from 2 different places and niether of them worked
3.i checked here in the forums and thought i found a answer but when i did what was told it didnt help at all still the same old problem.
So i wouldnt suggest xp unless you dont mind finding 40 different hardware issues i had other issues but i got them fixed and they werent clear and easy fixes either it took me an hour or two just to figure out how to fix them. You can do what you want (which im sure thats what you are going to do) but i dont suggest xp go with 2k
I am running XP Pro on my home machine and on 5 pcs at work. So far I have run the home machine since October launch and the only major problem was last week and that was caused by Office XP. My kids use the home machine and ir ran non stop from October to march without freezing although other ptograms had a few probs they did not shut down XP. My office machines work well and I have reduced my IT workload by 90% since upgrading from Me to XP.
Me? I'm going to stick with it.
Ray
Me? I'm going to stick with it.
Ray
The problem with these forums is that you only really see the "negative" side effects XP has on some systems. You don't post a message about XP if it's working! So, people that watch these forums only see problems and are hesitant to pass good judgement on the OS.
Look, people who don't have the time or money to hammer out hardware issues should probably stick with Win2K. Otherwise, XP should work on most if not all hardware configurations as long as all components are less than 2-3 years old.
Don't get me wrong. I've seen XP work on ancient P-II machines without a hitch. As a matter of fact, it installed on an old HP Pavilion laptop (which is buggy to begin with) that had an AMD K6-2 processor without asking for a single driver! Imagine that!!
Bottom line is that if your hardware is older than 3 years and you don't have time to take a chance on XP, then you probably shouldn't. Out of 8 installs I've done, only 1 has had any problems since (software compatibility issue).
ck_blk@yahoo.com
Look, people who don't have the time or money to hammer out hardware issues should probably stick with Win2K. Otherwise, XP should work on most if not all hardware configurations as long as all components are less than 2-3 years old.
Don't get me wrong. I've seen XP work on ancient P-II machines without a hitch. As a matter of fact, it installed on an old HP Pavilion laptop (which is buggy to begin with) that had an AMD K6-2 processor without asking for a single driver! Imagine that!!
Bottom line is that if your hardware is older than 3 years and you don't have time to take a chance on XP, then you probably shouldn't. Out of 8 installs I've done, only 1 has had any problems since (software compatibility issue).
ck_blk@yahoo.com
bigjeff314159
Technical User
at first i was skeptical because of the reputation that preceded win xp and micro$oft in general, but . . . i've been running xp home oem on my new custom built machine for 8 months now, not a single bsod. a couple of boo-boos on my part caused me to have to use the system restore function. can't say enough good about system restore.
video capture and editing are a breeze, as is cd burning. i prefer to use third-party software in place of windows media player and movie maker. if i were a gamer i'd buy a stand-alone box, so that's not an issue for me. i follow this and other forums and tip sites and when i see a good performance tip i try it. this puppy runs a little better every time i use it.
is it perfect? no, no operating system will ever be. cdogg is right about running xp on older equipment. win xp forums are full of people with legacy hardware, software, driver, peripheral, etc. problems.
i couldn't be more thrilled that i've got a good clean installation of win xp. (fingers crossed) i have no experience with win 2k, but i've got a sneaking suspicion that m$ is going to stop supporting it before too long, just like they've done with win me.
cdogg -- positive enough? heh, heh. ;-)
video capture and editing are a breeze, as is cd burning. i prefer to use third-party software in place of windows media player and movie maker. if i were a gamer i'd buy a stand-alone box, so that's not an issue for me. i follow this and other forums and tip sites and when i see a good performance tip i try it. this puppy runs a little better every time i use it.
is it perfect? no, no operating system will ever be. cdogg is right about running xp on older equipment. win xp forums are full of people with legacy hardware, software, driver, peripheral, etc. problems.
i couldn't be more thrilled that i've got a good clean installation of win xp. (fingers crossed) i have no experience with win 2k, but i've got a sneaking suspicion that m$ is going to stop supporting it before too long, just like they've done with win me.
cdogg -- positive enough? heh, heh. ;-)
mnblondegal
Technical User
xp is easy to read, but buggy. I agree. I have been using it now for about 6 months. You are constantly having to download new updates. It is a fun program to do tho.
AndrewBillits
Programmer
I can help with the IE 6 problem. A while back I had the problems with it so I asked a person I know that works for M$(he's on the IE team). He told me that win XP ships with it's own version of Internet explorer and that I should NOT install IE 6 on XP. He said that it works for some peopel but not for others.
AndrewBillits
Programmer
I'm just saying that I was told to be careful when using IE 6 with win XP. Becasue winxp ships with it's own version of IE.
w2k, NT, and 98 work fine with IE 6.
There is a site somewhere that backs up my info. i will try to find teh link.
w2k, NT, and 98 work fine with IE 6.
There is a site somewhere that backs up my info. i will try to find teh link.
AndrewBillits
Programmer
Windows XP is by far the best and most stable release of Windows to date. It's a memory pig, to be sure, but I love seeing uptimes in the weeks (and even months range on one machine, never bother updating that one) instead of hours or days.
It's better for gaming than Win2K by a long shot - those who say it's slow loading games need to adjust NTFS settings so it doesn't change the modified stamps.
As for running IE6 with it - IE6 ships with it. Works just fine.
The only gotchas seem to be folks with CD burners needing an ASPI layer - and you can find Win2KAspi all over the place that will handle that little glitch for you.
But don't take anybody's word for it - try it for yourself and see. Just make sure you run the "checkupgradeonly" version of the install the first time around and log everything. Things like firewalls, virus scanners, and the like will have to be uninstalled before upgrading, then reinstalled afterwards. WinFax users will have to do likewise. (Most symantec products, in fact, now that I think of it).
If you can, though, do the clean install - you'll be glad you did, and you'll probably find out there was a lot of garbage on there that you weren't using anymore anyway.
It's better for gaming than Win2K by a long shot - those who say it's slow loading games need to adjust NTFS settings so it doesn't change the modified stamps.
As for running IE6 with it - IE6 ships with it. Works just fine.
The only gotchas seem to be folks with CD burners needing an ASPI layer - and you can find Win2KAspi all over the place that will handle that little glitch for you.
But don't take anybody's word for it - try it for yourself and see. Just make sure you run the "checkupgradeonly" version of the install the first time around and log everything. Things like firewalls, virus scanners, and the like will have to be uninstalled before upgrading, then reinstalled afterwards. WinFax users will have to do likewise. (Most symantec products, in fact, now that I think of it).
If you can, though, do the clean install - you'll be glad you did, and you'll probably find out there was a lot of garbage on there that you weren't using anymore anyway.
AndrewBillits,
First of all, that link doesn't work for me. Second, I'm not sure about what you mean not using IE6 on XP. IE6 comes installed with XP (unless you choose otherwise).
Perhaps you are talking about the beta version of IE6. Before XP was released, IE6 was still in beta (meaning it didn't have full support for Java). The beta version of XP was released to some developers that saw many flaws in IE6 beta. The shipping version of XP corrected this problem in time.
Again, I'm not sure what you're referring to?
ck_blk@yahoo.com
First of all, that link doesn't work for me. Second, I'm not sure about what you mean not using IE6 on XP. IE6 comes installed with XP (unless you choose otherwise).
Perhaps you are talking about the beta version of IE6. Before XP was released, IE6 was still in beta (meaning it didn't have full support for Java). The beta version of XP was released to some developers that saw many flaws in IE6 beta. The shipping version of XP corrected this problem in time.
Again, I'm not sure what you're referring to?
ck_blk@yahoo.com
When XP first came out, it shipped with IE 5.5 w/ automatic option to upgrade to 6. That's the way mine works, (XP Home). I've been using it for quite a while and I have had zip problems with it. All my PC components are mix and match (although popular), and I never have any conflicts, I run a lot of High-res graphics programs and it handles them excellently although a mem upgrade was needed. It works solidly and performs very well with gaming. I also use Visual Studio and Visual C++ .Net without any problems. Excellent for use as a developement platform. Between Win2K and XP, XP is the way to go. Jay ![[atom]](/data/assets/smilies/atom.gif "[atom] [atom]")
"Jeezus-sqeezits Bob!"
"Jeezus-sqeezits Bob!"
- Status