If Win2k and WinXP are so good...

sohcrates

Diamond Member
Sep 19, 2000
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well, at least for me, it used to be that 2k and xp didn't have the best gaming support. 98 always took that prize

nowadays though, it doesn't really make much difference

used to keep it in 2k for ultimate stability and go into 98 to play quake and what not
 

TheOmegaCode

Platinum Member
Aug 7, 2001
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Originally posted by: sohcrates
well, at least for me, it used to be that 2k and xp didn't have the best gaming support. 98 always took that prize

nowadays though, it doesn't really make much difference

used to keep it in 2k for ultimate stability and go into 98 to play quake and what not
You can play quake and most games in 2k. Have you tried running your old games in 98 compatibility mode?
 

GonzoDaGr8

Platinum Member
Apr 29, 2001
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Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Why do so many people dual-boot with another Windows OS?

I've been running WinXP since last August when the release candidates came out. At that time, support for many of my peripherals (scanner, printer,etc.), games and some other programs wasn't so hot. So when I needed to use something that wasn't supported or didn't run in XP, I just hopped over to Win98 for a bit and did what I had to do..Now that XP support(drivers, utilities) has caught up with everything that I need, I rarely ever(actually never) go back to the Win98 side... The next upgrade will see Win98 being wiped off the map for good on this drive, Allthough I may keep it on another drive for $hits' and giggles and to remind me why I switched in the first place :p
 

JackBurton

Lifer
Jul 18, 2000
15,993
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Uhh, I run XP Pro SOLELY for my main machine and it does EVERYTHING I want it to do. I do however have a machine that quad boots WIn98SE, Win2000, Win XP Pro and Linux Mandrake 8.2, but that is just for testing apps on different OSes. Strickly a test box for apps. Did I mention I love XP Pro. I have no idea why people are still using Win9x.
 

Insidious

Diamond Member
Oct 25, 2001
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They need the older version installed so they won't loose their indoor hobby..... fixing the OS. :p


XP caught up with all my needs and runs alone here............. No, I don't run DOS games ... PONG IS BORING!
 

earthman

Golden Member
Oct 16, 1999
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I have found a couple older games that do not work under XP well...Dune 2000, Alpha Centauri Alien Crossfire, Burn Cycle are a couple examples. I also have trouble with Starcraft Broodwar. Not sure why.
 

TheOmegaCode

Platinum Member
Aug 7, 2001
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It seems that most of the answers are a matter of throwing another operating system at a problem, rather than troubleshooting it. Which I've been known to do on a few seperate occasions :eek:
 

Barnaby W. Füi

Elite Member
Aug 14, 2001
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ego boost?

not many impressive things to do with windows, so they dual boot to look 3l33t perhaps. i know a guy who dual boots xp and 98, he says he does it because quake II and some other very old games wont run in xp. i told him there are lots of new games he should check out : )

actually he might not dual boot anymore. he's not too computer savvy, and ended up wiping out both installations with an xp reinstall (somehow)

dual booting is kludgy, sometimes problematic, and generally unuseful in my experience.
 

sxr7171

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2002
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In addition to my experience that certain games (even Half-Life and GTA3) run faster in Win98 there are other compelling reasons for me to dual boot Win98/Win2k. One of those reasons is to run Norton Speed Disk on my drives in Win98. I know that the latest version of Speed Disk runs in Win2k and WinXP, but it runs slower than even diskeeper which is pretty slow. So I boot into Win98 and run Speed Disk which defragments my drives at least 3-4 times as fast as any program can in Win2k.

Another reason I like to keep Win98 around is because I like to have a barebones Win98 installation with only 2-3 absolutely necessary programs and minimal Windows components. This allows me to have an OS with a small registry and small easily defragmented installation particularly for games. It would be nice to game benchmark comparisons in both Oses to settle this issue once and for all. But as it stands, I feel my games run smoother and faster in Win98. All my work gets done better in the much more reliable Win2K environment.

Other reasons for dual-booting are just to have a backup OS in case something bad happens to you primary OS, so you can still do your work, and if neccessary to troubleshoot and manipulate files. Even though I'd prefer to use NTFS, this is why I still use FAT32 in addition to access in DOS. Maybe it is time to just move to Win2k/NTFS, but I haven't seen or felt anything conclusive about that, beyond certain people saying that one is of superior intellect if one boots only Win2k/WinXP.
 

Nothinman

Elite Member
Sep 14, 2001
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know a guy who dual boots xp and 98, he says he does it because quake II and some other very old games wont run in xp

The 'guy' is an idiot then. Quake II is a normal iD game that uses OpenGL for everything and runs on Windows everything, Linux and MacOS just fine. The culprit is probably shoddy video drivers for XP that don't do OpenGL properly/well.

So I boot into Win98 and run Speed Disk which defragments my drives at least 3-4 times as fast as any program can in Win2k.

If you used NTFS the defrag speed would be atleast twice as fast and you wouldn't have to do it as often. Get into the 21st century, ditch FAT.

Another reason I like to keep Win98 around is because I like to have a barebones Win98 installation with only 2-3 absolutely necessary programs and minimal Windows components

That's what rescue CDs are for. Although it's nearly impossible to get Windows to run from CD you can still have a DOS CD with necessary tools like pqmagic, ntfs4dos, etc.

Other reasons for dual-booting are just to have a backup OS in case something bad happens to you primary OS

Again, a rescue CD with ghost or if you have XP you can use the restore point feature thingy.

Maybe it is time to just move to Win2k/NTFS, but I haven't seen or felt anything conclusive about that,

You mean other than the fact that MS is stopping support for Win9X clients? Office 11 won't even run on them when it's released, they want to just forget about them but the number of people that won't move on is holding them back. Ditch Win9X, move on to a half-decent OS.
 

Thor86

Diamond Member
May 3, 2001
7,888
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Originally posted by: Nothinman
You mean other than the fact that MS is stopping support for Win9X clients? Office 11 won't even run on them when it's released, they want to just forget about them but the number of people that won't move on is holding them back. Ditch Win9X, move on to a half-decent OS.

Who's stupid enough to run Office 11 on Win9x anyway?
rolleye.gif
 

Mem

Lifer
Apr 23, 2000
21,476
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Why do so many people dual-boot with another Windows OS?

I guess you`re no gamer ;),I still play games that won`t run in XP or 2K like XCOM-Apocalypse .I actually don`t duel boot, my old PC has 98 OS and my main one with XP.

:)
 

Vadatajs

Diamond Member
Aug 28, 2001
3,475
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Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Why do so many people dual-boot with another Windows OS?

It's not that one is better than another at anything (except to fact that 2k and XP are better at just about everything than 9x, except dos), just that the people who dual boot have somehow beaten it into their thick heads that 98 is faster for games, or some other Neanderthals who still use dos (like my grandfather).


I could have just gone the easy route and quoted smilin, he hit it right on the head.
 

Mucho

Guest
Oct 20, 2001
8,231
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Well I triple boot 98/XP/RH8 because my scanner won?t work in XP and I am too cheap to buy another one. I want to figure out Linux before Paladin comes.
 

Rainsford

Lifer
Apr 25, 2001
17,515
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Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Why do so many people dual-boot with another Windows OS?

I never would have you figured for a flame war starter... ;) But in any case, I think the reason is plain old "I like what I use and I will resist change". People don't want to try new things and have trouble switching over to something new, so they hold on to the old as long as possible.

This is somewhat similar, and yet different, from people who haven't used Windows since 3.11 and know very little about it, yet still maintain "it sucks". Ahem, ahem, certain Unix geeks out there (not you, n0c, of course). In any case, I digress :)
 

grrl

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2001
6,204
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Well I triple boot 98/XP/RH8 because my scanner won?t work in XP and I am too cheap to buy another one. I want to figure out Linux before Paladin comes.

I had to dual boot for a while between 98 and 2000 because it took a while to get everything to work correctly under 2k.
 

Barnaby W. Füi

Elite Member
Aug 14, 2001
12,343
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Originally posted by: Nothinman
know a guy who dual boots xp and 98, he says he does it because quake II and some other very old games wont run in xp

The 'guy' is an idiot then. Quake II is a normal iD game that uses OpenGL for everything and runs on Windows everything, Linux and MacOS just fine. The culprit is probably shoddy video drivers for XP that don't do OpenGL properly/well.

ahem.

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
he's not too computer savvy

you could probably do without calling someone you dont know an idiot. i'm sure you couldnt build a power supply or program a cnc machine, yet i'm sure he would not call you an idiot based on that.


**ok maybe you can, but its the point that counts here.
 

Bleep

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
3,972
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you could probably do without calling someone you dont know an idiot. i'm sure you couldnt build a power supply or program a cnc machine, yet i'm sure he would not call you an idiot based on that

Great answer. You see the big problem with the Linux/Unix bunch is they look at their favorite OS in the same terms that most people look at their religon and it becomes a crusade with them to show that anyone that does not use Unix/linux as some kind of stupid asss that does not know what is good for them.

Mac OS is a unix derivitive and I dont see them touting os10 or some other Apple junk.

Does dual booting make you a moron? Some would like to say this, how about when you dual boot lets say red hat and debian does that also make you a moron?

Bleep