98SE or XPhome ?

[farns]

I am not getting xp pro or 2K as they are too expensive, neither am I dual booting for same reason.
I have win98 plain(I think) at present and it was great but after 2 or 3 years of files being moved a round it has started clagging up and freezing and other stuff isnt working.
I want XPhome for plug and play easiness but it is a hog and thus effectively reduces the life of my system and making me upgrade 200mhz whatever earlier 😀
I want 98SE as its trimmed down and prolly has all the same stuff as XPhome anyway but morons like me that arent into computers might find it harder to tweak and install stuff.

Gaming, and DVD,mp3 watching & burning will be the only resource intensive stuff I'll be doing and I know a new pc wont even notice the extra requirements of xp but if I had 98SE it would last even longer if U see my point.

Can u switch stuff off in xphome so its no more of a hog than 98SE?

 

[iCore]

No and Yes. 🙂

You can switch things off, such as non-critical services, in XP so that you gain back critical memory and security but it's still a pig compaired to 98se. There are plenty of resources on the Web that will recommend what services can be turned on/off and what they are used for in different situations. XP is not for the timid at all. You need to spend some time researching around the forums to get info on setting up XP to run the way you want it to. If your new to XP or computers in general and feel adventuresome go for it~! If not go 98se go.

 

[Buz2b]

Wait a minute, someone must be joking right? XP home is much better than 98SE, anyday! Resource hog?? Yeah, 98se, 98, 95, ME, etc are hogs and most times won't give it back. XP manages resources better and you won't run into the famous (infamous) "out of memory" errors and lock ups. XP requires more memory, sure. But it actually utilizes it and puts it to good use (well, mostly) instead of blowing it like the others.

farns:
You weren't exactly clear but I take it that you have an older slower system and you think that you will need something faster than you have to run XP. If you have a 333 or less, that is true. Even at 333 you will need the minimum of 128MB of memory and even that will be slow. If you don't have the bucks for the memory of if your system is too slow, stay in the world of 98. SE doesn't improve performance, just has more bells and whistles. If you have the cpu and memory (or can afford them) then you should seriously consider XP.
I'm not usually a proponent of MS products but at least this time they got "closer" to putting out a decent OS this time.

 

[mrzed]

Yeah, if you told us your system specs it would help with making a suggestion.

IMO, XP is really for 600Mhz+, 128Mb+ systems. You can run OK it with less, but the speed difference will be noticeable.

Once you start getting into the Gig range, XP will actually be faster for many things. I certainly noticed a faster boot time when I switched.