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Which OS? Windows 98 or Windows XP?
Tiger-Heli:
Here are some comments from the real world.
--- Quote from: Grasshopper on July 22, 2004, 03:41:57 pm ---The point I was making was that most of the improvements are of little relevance to a typical home PC user, certainly not enough to justify the cost and hassle of upgrading.
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Agreed.
--- Quote --- Although I mainly use 98SE at home we use XP at work, and I honestly have to say that from the user perspective, the only obvious difference between the two is XP's prettier icons.
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Not agreed. We use Win2k at work and I use 98SE at home. Not a fair comparison, but 98SE will about twice a month, freeze (mouse won't move, keyboard won't work), and I have to re-boot and lose whatever I was working on. (But I'm also in the habit of saving often, so a minor annoyance).
At work, Word will ocassionally (maybe once every two months) say "We're sorry, but Word encountered an errror and needs to close" Then when I click OK, it backs up my file (to a recovered doc), and closes, leaving my other apps running unharmed, and when I re-open Word, my last changes have been automatically saved.
A big improvement from the users perspective.
Keep in mind that I have more time spent daily on my work then my home PC, (and balace it against the fact that I have a fairly barebones software environment at work and tons of crap on the home PC), and there is a stability improvement.
--- Quote ---Now if Microsoft produced a version of XP that could be disengaged from its GUI and also ditched their product activation nonsense (another debate for another thread) then I'd happily upgrade tomorrow.
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The product activation is a big drawback to me. I wouldn't even mind paying for the upgrade, but I can (in violation of the license) load the same version of 98 on multiple computers, and I can't (easily) do so with XP, but another debate for another thread . . .
danny_galaga:
--- Quote from: Tiger-Heli on July 23, 2004, 08:14:12 am ---
The product activation is a big drawback to me. I wouldn't even mind paying for the upgrade, but I can (in violation of the license) load the same version of 98 on multiple computers, and I can't (easily) do so with XP, but another debate for another thread . . .
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thats something i considered when i used 98se. as well as the fact that i already had the cd. but someone recently told me (although i hardly ever believe what he says!) that the product activation for xp doesnt actually do anything. is this true? im going to test it next time i reformat my pc (which is xp). ill just let the warnings pop up for 30 days and see what happens after. that could be months from now though so if anyone knows anything about it...
Tiger-Heli:
--- Quote from: danny_galaga on July 23, 2004, 10:48:11 am ---
--- Quote from: Tiger-Heli on July 23, 2004, 08:14:12 am ---The product activation is a big drawback to me. I wouldn't even mind paying for the upgrade, but I can (in violation of the license) load the same version of 98 on multiple computers, and I can't (easily) do so with XP, but another debate for another thread . . .
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I would be highly surprised if your OS doesn't shut down in 30 days, but have no first-hand knowledge.
thats something i considered when i used 98se. as well as the fact that i already had the cd. but someone recently told me (although i hardly ever believe what he says!) that the product activation for xp doesnt actually do anything. is this true? im going to test it next time i reformat my pc (which is xp). ill just let the warnings pop up for 30 days and see what happens after. that could be months from now though so if anyone knows anything about it...
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Lilwolf:
quick note: I had a 98SE machine that ran for maybe 6 months between reboots. It was both my game / development machine... but also my answering machine (why it never got turned off)
but... I hand build the machine and never upgraded more then on component at a time for YEARS to get to this point. I had a VERY stable hardware set... and VERY stable drivers.
but.... I didn't do real development on it (just playing around).
XP is a BETTER OS for MANY reasons. More stable, yes... but 98 could be stable... it depended more on your hardware / drivers then anything else.
XP is more forgiving when you don't.
This is why I mentioned drivers.. what manufacturer out there will put as much time into their 98 drivers? None...
XP is the future...
98 is for free os if you already have a cd laying around... (or your running on really old system)
danny_galaga:
earlier i stated that i could leave win98se with mame32 on for days. but then i thought 'well, could i?', since i hadnt actually done it. so i did, it's just past the 48 hour mark :) so now i can truthfully say that i can leave it on for days! this is a test of my cab design as well since it is giving the ventilation a workout.
of course i explain to my housemates that i HAVE to keep playing games on it as part of the test. MAME R & D isn't all fun and games you know. oh, hang on- it IS fun and games!