Windows question

[jgr]

I am still running on win 98 2nd edition. I have no real complaints or problems. Should I update to xp?? What are the advantages/disadvantages over what I have now.

[Josiah Tobin]

NO!
Don't update!
Well, I wouldn't at least.
Windows 98 is probably the best version of windows out there (for me at least).
Perfectly fine dos support in 98 is the main point...
I just WISH I still had a win98 cd so I could install it on this p.o.s computer.

[adosorken]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[Mech1031]

i loves my windows 98, so crisp, so ... so ... functional!

[Sterling Christensen]

Reasons to upgrade:
1. XP almost never crashes
2. You can be installing and uninstalling apps all the time, have lots of shell extensions, registry entries, etc and it still won't deteriorate as quickly as 98 (as far as startup/shutdown speed and general responsiveness)
3. If you use IE, WinXP SP2's IE has a built in popup blocker and is much more secure (but you should use Firefox instead anyway if you're worried about security) And MS isn't fixing security exploits for 98 any more.
4. It starts up faster, and so will your apps (at least Firefox seems to starts up a lot faster)
5. Various small interface improvements. System tray icons you don't use can be hidden, etc...
6. Better command line interface. Supports tab auto completion (hit tab and you don't have to finish typing out long folder/file names), etc.

And these don't really apply if you want to stick with your current hardware for now:
7. Some drivers and apps (like the latest versions of Visual Studio) require Windows 2000 or better
8. NTFS can handle partitions larger than 32 gig, so if you ever get a larger harddrive you'll need at least Windows 2000.
9. Much easier to install new hardware - Plug-and-Play is painless and simple with XP

Reasons NOT to:
1. It's more bloated and a resource hog - don't install it on old hardware (slow CPU is usually not too bad, but you'd better have a decent amount of RAM, like 256MB, bare minimum 128MB).
2. DOS compatibility is worse. Depending on your video card & drivers, hi res graphic libraries like UGL and Future.Library may not work at all. And for audio, there's something you can download (I think it's called VDMSound) to make the soundblaster emulation actually work.
3. QB 7.1 (but not 4.5) will give an annoying warning about how you're voiding your warranty by not running it on genuine MS-DOS (or something like that) every single time you start it!
4. It requires online activation which can be a hassle, especially (I've heard) when you change your hardware too much (it requires you to re-activate)
5. Command line interface doesn't support "..." (three dots) as a stand in for "..\.." like 98 does.

If you haven't seen how it looks: Here's a random screenshot I found with Google.
Some people (like me) get so used to the colors that by comparison Win98 looks flat and bland, while others hate the new colorful interface because it looks childish like a Fisher-Price toy (seriously that's how it gets described). But you can turn that off and make it look like Windows 2000 instead.

Overall, if you still do qbasic/QuickBASIC or any DOS programming, you'll probably be happier with 98 unless (like me) you 1. are luck enough to have a video card with drivers that are VESA/DOS-emulation friendly and 2. don't care too much about being able to play sound from dos programs.

[Plasma]

I agree with most of your points, except:

The QB 7.1 warning is easy to fix.

VDMSound (or SoundFX 2K) actually provides better compatibility (emulates OPL2/3 synths) than Windows 9x does if you have a PCI sound card (which most people do.)

In my opinion, the biggest issue with running DOS programs under NT/2K/XP is that the VDM eats the CPU. You can adjust the process priority manually or try TameDOS, but it's still kind of sluggish.

[TheBigBasicQ]

If you do decide to go in for XP then please install XP SP2(Service pack 2), use Firefox / Mozilla / Opera, install a good updated antivirus and dont forget to configure the firewall! :lol:

[NovaProgramming]

Reasons to upgrade:
1. XP almost never crashes

:o

I must be using a faulty version then.

[HQSneaker]

Mine crashes now and then as well

[whitetiger0990]

Mine crashes becuase I make it crash by doing everything to it at once. Stuff like that.