Windows NT or ME ?

[Terrapin]

Greetings:

I am new to this forum and would appreciate any advice you can give me on what OS to use in the PC I am about to build.

It will be a PIII 933 with 256 133 RAM, Ultra SCSI, Seagate Cheetah SCSI HD.

My applications are primarily windows office type progys and I also play a ton of games. I've been using windows 98 and I understand that OS has been replaced with ME.

It has been my understanding that Windows NT; which is what I believe Windows 2000 to be, has always been the more stable, powerful and secure OS. If this is true and with games appearing to be working on that OS, I am trying to figure out why anyone would choose windows 98 or ME over 2000.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Terrapin

 

[paulip88]

Win2K does offer better support for games, but if you plat A LOT of games, you may find the support a bit too flaky for your tastes.

True, Win2K is more stable and secure than 98 or ME. However, its not as stable when playing games (compared to NT4, which did not support games well).

I would go with either 98 or ME. ME is not worth the upgrade from what I hear. You basically have to choose whether you want guaranteed support for your games or would you rather have a more stable OS for office apps.

 

[Kappo]

hmmm actually I have had win ME installed for quite a while now and I have VERY few problems at all. It seems ok with almost 18 gigs of installs (storage is on another drive) just fine and have had only a crash or two...
To be perfectly honest I have MUCH more stability than I did in 98 se. I would still chose 2k because it is VERY powerful and game support will eventually be there...my FPShooters arent as nice, and for some reason it never seems like it is as fast as ME...no matter how much I tweak. But it is DEFINATLY nice and I like them both. All of my Office stuff works great in ME (PCanywhere, MS office, lotus notes, photoshop, homesite, macromedia, visual studio, ect...) and I have NEVER had a game incompatibility...and I play CS, TFC, Q3, Diablo!!, and MOSTLY FPshooter type stuff. I did notice with Win2K I have better pings on the lan!! yeah I know, what is the difference between a 25 (flucutating) ping and a 12 (CONTSTANT) ping? Dunno...just looks neat I guess

 

[dirtboy]

I'd stick with 98 or 98SE.

 

[SaturnX]

Though, you also do have the option of dual booting both Win2K and 98/ME so you get the gaming compatibility of 9x and the stability of Win2K. Though I strongly suggest that you do not use ME, but rather stick with 98SE. ME is far too bloated with useless software and although you may think it is a good choice, many people have gone back and reverted back to 98 or switched to 2K.

--Mark

 

[dmw16]

I would say stick with Win98. I am still running Windows98 rev. 1 and I am very happy with it. I really dont have much trouble with it, and the driver support is good(and it may not always be with Win2k). I hope I dont get in trouble for saying that about the drivers, but while Win2k drivers are good, they arent always as up-to-date as Win98. One other thing, be very careful when changing around drive configurations with Win2k. I was running a dual boot between 2k and 98 and I fried my NT boot loader when I moved some drives around(different IDE channels), and I lost all data on my C drive, just a word of warning.
-doug

 

[DioCassius]

I have a question about dual booting. If i install win2k on my d: drive, when i boot to 2k, can i execute programs i installed in Me on my C: drive? Also, how does it work with the drive formats. will my d: drive show up in Me if i format it NFTS? Does the format matter? any feedback would be appreciated.

 

[xtreme2k]

Win9x wont be able to read NTFS formatted drive without a 3rd party software

Anyway, for shared program files, it is not 'recommend' but it can be done.
Just install the programs you want from W2k again to the same directory

 

[DioCassius]

So do you need to have everything installed twice if you want to use both OS's?

 

[SUOrangeman]

Yes, install Apps twice (even if they go to the same physical directory) in both OSes. Be sure to ask yourself if you really need the app that bad.

-SUO