I don't like XP. Is it just me? 1

[llefebure]

Greetings everyone.

Do you like XP?

I just thought I would collect the opinions of my peers to see what you all think. How do you like XP compared to 2000 and 98? Do you recommend it to your customers?


My opinion:
So, I'm 1 test away from being an MCSE and have half a dozen other misc certs. I've worked with about 50 machines running XP home and pro. I have yet to be impressed with XP. I have a strong dislike for XP. So strong that I have begun to recommend my customers NOT get XP and instead order 2000 Pro on all new PCs. It is my impression that XP flat out doubles the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) when compared to 2000 Pro. What I mean is that it takes double the time to setup/configure and double the time to do anything as a User running applications. I will speculate that it will be about a year before I recommend my customers buy XP over 2000. I think it will take Intel that long to get a processor fast enough to run XP the way it should be - without those nasty delays.

Your turn:
Is it just me being an old-school windows 2000 die-hard or do the rest of you see it the same way?


Why is it that Microsoft is always bragging about how XP is so much better than 98. I have yet to see Microsoft say XP is better than 2000. Why is that?

Note: I do expect a more biased opinion here than say on the Windows 2000 forum.

Please, I don't wish to start a flame war here. I just want your honest opinions.

 

[Empeethree]

>Why is it that Microsoft is always bragging about how XP >is so much better than 98. I have yet to see Microsoft say >XP is better than 2000. Why is that?

I would say it is due to the fact that most home users did not install windows 2000 on their machines.



Personally I like XP. Although I have not tried the home version only pro. Now M.E. , I didn't care much for that one.

Rob --------------------------------------
Trying is the first step to failure
Homer Simpson
--------------------------------------

 

[bigjeff314159]

just curious . . . what nasty delays?

see this thread for other commentary on win xp. thread779-296738

 

[Guest_imported]

I have been running XP Pro since it first came out. I love it, no crashes and no delays. I did notice it was slow on my old 400 mhz machine but my 800 and 1.6 gig machines are running fine with XP Pro.

As a installer of NT I love XP, it found all my hardware and I had no drivers to load. I have yet to "CRASH" or get the "BSOD" like I did with the others.

As far as ME, I think it is the worst I have ever tried. I couldn't run more than 30 minutes without a crash. I also found many others with the same problems on ME.

Madman

 

[rkoehler]

IMHO XP ist the first OS from MS that works from the beginning. I've installed several PCs with XP Pro and XP always recognized all the hardware without the need of any drivers.
Of cause you need a little more space and power.
The only BIG problem for me is the activasion.
Due my problems with my KT133a board i'd often changed the slot for the NW and Soundcard and also installed the VIA Driver several times.
So i had to activate XP 4 Times in the last 3 Month.
I tried the activationcrack but it doesnt help.
At last MS forced me to installed a cracked corporate version.

rk

 

[Shaith]

My only complaint about XP installations is they take quite a while. However, you can automate them so that rollouts are a snap by sticking your answer file on a floppy disk. Makes life wonderful.

And it's infinitely more stable than NT4 and Win2K ever were.

Yes, it's a resource hog. NT4 would happily run on 32 megs. Win2K needed 64 megs. XP minimum is 128 megs according to GatesSoft, but I have yet to see a machine run smoothly with less than about 192 megs in it. 128 pretty much just gets the "old juices flowing" as it were. But with 256 megs of ram being $45 this week, it's not a major TCO problem. And once you have it installed, configured, and set properly, it runs FAR faster than NT4 or Win2K ever did, and rarely if ever do you see a BSOD if you've done things correctly.

Moving hardware around in the computer, if it's the same hardware, should not cause WPA issues. Hardware changes, such as swapping every card for a different brand of card, or motherboard/processor swaps, those things would cause you to have to reactivate. In the corporate environment, this isn't a problem. Open licenses start at 5 users and allow you to skip the activation biz entirely, which is quite nice.

The 70-270 exam will take a bit of lead outta your pencil if you're not prepared for it. I've read about guys who have failed the thing multiple times despite using many of the best resources out there. I personally found out that the test site I'd been using was worthless the night before my exam was scheduled. Thanks to some last-minute cramming, I was able to pass that sucker with flying colors on the first try in 17 minutes flat.

Bottom line, though, is WindowsXP is definitely the best thing to come out of Microsoft as far as operating systems. And you can't beat remote assistance and remote desktop features. I got tired of my family always calling me and asking me to come over and look at some computer problem. Made them all buy XP and installed it for 'em. Now I answer their questions without leaving my desktop, and I can walk them through things while they watch. And if that alone doesn't reduce TCO, you need to recalculate your TCO figures.

 

[walshy]

I wouldn't go back to 98, but it is a bit like a 4 wheel drive truck, it wont get stuck easy, but when it does it's real stuck

 

[wolluf]

XP is just 2K with (mainly) unnecessary knobs on. Certainly isn't 'infinitely more stable' than NT and 2K (much the same in fact, IMHO). I have a multiboot machine at home and have found myself using 2K 95% of the time. Comparisons with 9x/ME are not worth making (no serious computer user would ever go back to 9x/ME after using 2k/XP unless it was for a specific app/game which doesn't run properly on 2k/XP). I do think a lot of non-technical users like XP because its prettier than previous versions of Windows!

 

[Pyramus]

I have begun to recommend my customers NOT get XP and instead order 2000 Pro on all new PCs.

And how do you go about doing this, given that all you can get now is XP? You don't have a choice if buying a new computer, its XP or XP...

 

[Required]

...or Linux?

 

[MechMan]

It's just you... (WinXP Pro user)

 

[AnonGod]

Sounds to me XP is a love or hate.

XP Pro is definately a hate with every intall I have tried. My home machine (Dell Optiplex GX240 1.8ghz - not an old box) loses sound from the right channels, and the hotmail.com website freezes IE every time. My laptop (Dell Latitude 1 gigger - again, not bad hardware) does misc config changes behind my back, and even more when going to/from the docking station.

But on the other side, I've heard nothing but praise from some of my coworkers on their installs.

I could almost swear MS is putting AI into this OS -)), where either XP likes you or not.

[TAG]
anongod@hotmail.com
"Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing."

 

[qbasicking]

I love XP, I have been using the home edition since it came out and i have not had a crash at all. It is much more stable and much faster that 98, it only takes 13 seconds to load.
My only complaint is the single tasking of DOS programs.

 

[FosTech]

It's just you.

 

[llefebure]

I agree - it looks like XP is a love or hate OS.

just curious . . . what nasty delays?
Most of the XP machines I have worked with will have a long (several second) delay when opening folders. However, other times there won't be any delay. I have noticed this more on PCs with anything less than 512 Meg of RAM.


And it's infinitely more stable than NT4 and Win2K ever were.
I thought they were all built on the same core code.


rarely if ever do you see a BSOD if you've done things correctly
I recall hearing somewhere that there is a checkbox that you can either see the BSOD or just have the machine reboot. The default was to just reboot. Can anyone confirm either way on this? I saw XP Pro do these random reboots just the other day when running an old DOS app called legalmaster. About 80 percent of the time it would run the app fine, the other 20 percent were an instant reboot upon launching the app.


And you can't beat remote assistance and remote desktop features.
True. This will cut into the market share of PcAnywhere.


given that all you can get now is XP? You don't have a choice if buying a new computer, its XP or XP...
If you buy a consumer grade PC, it is XP home or XP pro. If you buy a business grade PC, you can still get 2000 Pro. Through the end of June 2002, you can still get 98, but that will stop as of July 1. Most manufacturers have already stopped shipping 98 though with 4 days left now. Welcome to Licensing 6.0.


It's just you
Must be. It looks like the majority of you like it. Either I don't yet know enough about its little quirks or I just have bad luck with it. I have now done about a dozen separate installs where a company purchased several new PCs and I get to set them up. I always find myself with a problem such as nwclient, the app that won't run, a poorly written lexmark printer driver, etc. Just last week I was hooking 2 XP Pro PCs up in a peer to peer network for a small car dealer. They wanted to share some files and a printer. Simple enough right. Give them the same user/password and put them in the same workgroup. What I got was 2 PCs that could see each other, but not login to each other. After a couple hours of eliminating things, I found a security setting that wouldn't allow remote logins if the user's password is blank. That is Q303846 if you see this problem.

For all of you that do like XP, how many have done a lot with 2000? If your coming from 98 and ME, there is no doubt that things will be better with XP. My interest was mainly 2000 vs. XP.

-Lance

 

[enigma174]

>I recall hearing somewhere that there is a checkbox that >you can either see the BSOD or just have the machine >reboot.

Yeah, its in the Control Panel, under performance and maintenance, system, advanced tab, Startup and recovery, settings

(now what was that comment about things taking longer and being harder to find??

 

[Goha]

Q1. is there the DOS prompt in XP??

Q2. can I load old OS software on it (Games + Development Utilities)??

 

[Hungster]

Q1 go to Start Run and type in cmd for command prompt
or command

Q2 yes you can install anything, at least i did, anything everything, if not, you shouldn't be using it, chances are your software is so old that you use load Win 3.11

 

[Goha]

WHAT IS LOAD 3.11???

 

[Hungster]

meant to say you have to load windows 3.11