Windows 2K or Windows XP?

[mad amoeba]

I'm going to have to work on a windows operating system for a while so i
need to purchase either win2k or winxp pro. I was wondering if you guys
would help me figure out which one is the better deal. Windows 2000 seems to
have better registration policy and is probably significantly lighter on
system resources than xp. XP on the other hand has smoother interface and
probably less hadrware issues. The price difference between the two is
negligible as far as i concerned. OEM versions on pricegrabber start from
$90 and $130.
I would probably just go for newer and better winxp but I am really
concerned about how it will handle my privacy as from all the things I've
read about it, it communicates alot with mssoft and exchanges alot of
information. Overall I guess I am leaning towards win2k as it seems to be
the best of what mssoft offers. What is your opinions on what i should do?

thanx

 

[SunSpot]

I'm going to have to work on a windows operating system for a while so i
need to purchase either win2k or winxp pro. I was wondering if you guys
would help me figure out which one is the better deal. Windows 2000 seems to
have better registration policy and is probably significantly lighter on
system resources than xp. XP on the other hand has smoother interface and
probably less hadrware issues. The price difference between the two is
negligible as far as i concerned. OEM versions on pricegrabber start from
$90 and $130.
I would probably just go for newer and better winxp but I am really
concerned about how it will handle my privacy as from all the things I've
read about it, it communicates alot with mssoft and exchanges alot of
information. Overall I guess I am leaning towards win2k as it seems to be
the best of what mssoft offers. What is your opinions on what i should do?

thanx

Either one is a good choice. XP is the most stable, and would be my choice.
As the the privacy issues, don't believe everything you read.

 

[mad amoeba]

I reinstall operating systems very often on the machines that i have. With
winxp does it mean that i'll have to call them up everytime to reregister it
since the software will think that i am trying to reinstall the os on a
different machine illegally.

thank you for replying.

 

[Tom Shelton]

I reinstall operating systems very often on the machines that i have. With
winxp does it mean that i'll have to call them up everytime to reregister it
since the software will think that i am trying to reinstall the os on a
different machine illegally.

thank you for replying.

Well, I recently had to re-install WinXP on a box and it reactivated
fine - I didn't have to call them. I guess it depends how often, and if
hardware has changed or not. ..

Tom Shelton

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

Registration and Activation are two different things. You never have to
register XP, that is optional. Activation is different. Reinstalling XP
won't even trigger activation unless enough hardware has been changed. If
you reformat and reinstall, activation will be necessary but it is a normal
step during installation and if you haven't reached the number of hardware
changes necessary to require a phone call, activation is essentially a
handshake between two computers over the Internet.

Activation is meant to prevent the user from installing their copy of XP on
more than one machine. If you are thinking of buying one copy and
installing it on more than one machine, then you will have issues and while
the installation probably will take place, you won't be able to activate it.

You can only activate on a single machine unless you have a volume license
or have purchased additional licenses for yourself.

 

[Ken Blake]

In [email protected], mad amoeba
wrote:

I'm going to have to work on a windows operating system for a while
so i need to purchase either win2k or winxp pro.

I would probably just go for newer and better winxp but I am really
concerned about how it will handle my privacy as from all the things
I've read about it, it communicates alot with mssoft and exchanges
alot of information.

It sounds like most of what you've read about is FUD. As far as
I'm concerned there are no worries in that regard.

Overall I guess I am leaning towards win2k as it
seems to be the best of what mssoft offers. What is your opinions on
what i should do?

The two are very similar (under the hood Windows 2000 is Windows
NT 5.0 and XP is Windows NT 5.1). If you already had 2000 and
were questioning whether it was worth the money to upgrade to XP,
that would be a legitimate concern, and the answer might well be
no.

But for anyone asking which to buy, in my view it's a no
brainer--go with the newer, better model, Windows XP.

(Follow-ups to the linux newsgroup removed, since it has nothing
to do with the question and is likely to do nothing but start a
flame war.)

 

[mad amoeba]

so then it means that os is sending data about my computer to some ms server
which has data about my computer stored on it already. otherwise how would
ms know whether or not ive changed enough hardware for the installation to
be suspect of using pirated software.
I have no plans of adding any software or hardware in the near future but
when i do i really dont want to go through the nightmare(that's what some
people are describing it as) of reactivating the OS.
Just after reading the following review it seems like reactivating is a
nightmarish process:
http://www.epinions.com/content_46060899972

 

[mad amoeba]

the reason i posted to linux ng is because I wanted to get opinions from
people who most likely hate MS and will therefore will tell me all the
negative things i need to know about it. But on second thought you are
absolutely right. This might just start an uncecessary flame war.
thank you for replying.

 

[Timothy]

I reinstall operating systems very often on the machines that i have. With
winxp does it mean that i'll have to call them up everytime to reregister it
since the software will think that i am trying to reinstall the os on a
different machine illegally.

thank you for replying.

it is my exsperience that if you zero your hd you can install xp as much as
you want....lol if you dont mind waiting for hrs on end usualy about 4
depending on the size.

but if install i think more than twice on one machine after you have put new
hard ware on it yes i would think you would have to get a new registration
ID to activate but it doesnt cost anything .... as long as 75% of the
components are the same component.....

of course i may be wrong....
tim

 

[Tom Shelton]

so then it means that os is sending data about my computer to some ms server
which has data about my computer stored on it already. otherwise how would
ms know whether or not ive changed enough hardware for the installation to
be suspect of using pirated software.
I have no plans of adding any software or hardware in the near future but
when i do i really dont want to go through the nightmare(that's what some
people are describing it as) of reactivating the OS.
Just after reading the following review it seems like reactivating is a
nightmarish process:
http://www.epinions.com/content_46060899972

That article is like 2 years old dude... There have been a lot of
changes since then. Like Michael said, when you reinstall if the
hardware hasn't changed significantly then it will reactivate without a
phone call to MS - I just had to do this a few weeks ago, and it wasn't
a problem.

It dosn't matter about what software you have installed, all the
activation program does is generate a key based on your hardware config.
There is no personal information sent - since you don't have to
register the product, you only have to activate it.

Tom Shelton

 

[Harry Ohrn]

Check this site for good information about Windows Product Activation
http://www.aumha.org/a/wpa.htm

 

[dizzlin]

Either one is a good choice. XP is the most stable, and would be my choice.
As the the privacy issues, don't believe everything you read.

How stupid do you have to be to trust M$?

 

[Timothy]

the reason i posted to linux ng is because I wanted to get opinions from
people who most likely hate MS and will therefore will tell me all the
negative things i need to know about it. But on second thought you are
absolutely right. This might just start an uncecessary flame war.
thank you for replying.

mad omeba... it is god to have a debate on wich users find which operation
system easier to use or more functional. how dare microsoft discriminate....

uncle sam would not be proud ...lol

then again i may be wrong

tim

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?Lin=F8nut?=]

While restarting Outlook, mad amoeba grumbled:

Rejuvenate your hardware with GNU/Linux!

 

[Ted]

it is my exsperience that if you zero your hd you can install xp as much as
you want....lol if you dont mind waiting for hrs on end usualy about 4
depending on the size.
Bwahahahahaha!


but if install i think more than twice on one machine after you have put new
hard ware on it yes i would think you would have to get a new registration
ID to activate but it doesnt cost anything .... as long as 75% of the
components are the same component.....
PMSL!


of course i may be wrong....

Understatement!

 

[Ted]

While restarting Outlook, mad amoeba grumbled:

Rejuvenate your hardware with GNU/Linux!

GNU ( and linux) make you stupid!

 

[D. C. Sessions]

I reinstall operating systems very often on the machines that i have. With
winxp does it mean that i'll have to call them up everytime to reregister it
since the software will think that i am trying to reinstall the os on a
different machine illegally.

Do yourself a favor and plonk down the $$$ for VMWare.
For one thing, it lets you firewall the little sucker
so that you _know_ it's not talking out of school.
For another, you can snapshot and restore with simple
file copies, which will save you those $$$ in no time
compared to reinstalling all the time.

Finally, MSWin seems to run more reliably on VMWare
than on bare metal. As long as you don't need low-level
I/O (read gaming) MS on VMWare on Linux also runs faster.
Doesn't make sense, but there you have it.

 

[Ken Blake]

In [email protected], mad amoeba
wrote:

the reason i posted to linux ng is because I wanted to get opinions
from people who most likely hate MS and will therefore will tell me
all the negative things i need to know about it. But on second
thought you are absolutely right. This might just start an
uncecessary flame war.
thank you for replying.

You're welcome.

 

[Donald Link]

I think you are comparing XP Home with Win2k by the price quoted. Win 2000
does not have as much device support as XP, but Win2000 does have support
for more older devices. Not an expert, but have both Win2000 and XP Pro
installed and have settled mostly on XP. Used Win2000 at work and really
runs fine, but there is a workstation an server edition.

 

[Freeride]

Second, I have had to call MS twice about reactivations and they've always
activated me without argument of any kind.

Try that in a large Office! What about imaging system? Say some poor admin
has to do this shit on 100 systems? How much fun would that be?