Win2K Pro or XP Pro ?

[cirks]

probably done to death before but who votes for which and why? I've not been a great fan of XP interface but that might be because I've used 98,NT and 2K pro/server for so long. Couple of things that might help...
1) machine will be used for some Video editing, stills manipulation etc and general 'MS Office' activities plus some web development
2) spec of machine will easily take either OSs
3) want to go for Wireless network at some point soon
4) won't be going to Linux (thought I'd save anyone suggesting that)

[NJGSX96]

Sticking with the latest and greatest is always the best option. Either will do you right but I would go XP Pro and service pack it and keep it updated. it is what I have and I like it. No troubles. The "look" of it is more of a Fisher Price look but you can turn all that crap off.

[agent006]

Go for XP as it has better wireless features than 2000. Other than that, 2000 is better.

[puggit]

Win2k - none of that crap MS registration rubbish!!!

[JonRB]

For a developer I'd say Win2k, but for a Power User then XP Pro is probably the better choice.

(Never thought I'd see the day when I'd recommend WinXP over Win2K)

[sjg]

It's easy to change to "classic" theming and switch the annoyances off - my XP install looks pretty much like 2000. There's no real changes underneath, so performance is more or less equal. Lots of the important changes (for me at least!) relate to power management, which is less important on a desktop than a laptop. Things like Cleartype (very nice on LCD screens), and the usual extra drivers in a newer OS - if you plug something new in, there's a better chance it'll work straight off. Wireless networking is a bit slicker too.

If they're both the same price (likely), buy XP. If nothing else, it'll go on being supported and upgradeable for longer.

>> Edited by sjg on Friday 21st November 19:55

>> Edited by sjg on Friday 21st November 19:56

[JonRB]

As a developer debugging alpha code that could hang without warning, the fact that locking up a process in XP can bring down the entire OS whereas Win2K will keep going and let me just kill off the hung process is a major reason why most developers prefer to develop under Win2K rather than WinXP.

But as I said, if that is not an issue for you then WinXP is probably the way to go for a new install.

However, if you have a stable Win2K build then there is little reason to upgrade to WinXP (I ackowledge this wasn't the original question).