Operating System recommendation

[newcentury]

Well, I'm buying a new pc that will be used most for my small business. Not a gaming machine, mostly business type applications. It will be networked to several lesser machines. Here is what it has:
Motherboard: PC Chips M830 (Snd, Lan, 56K) Motherboard
Processor: AMD Athlon XP 2000 (266MHz FSB) CPU
CPU Fan: Approved Heatsink/Fan Combo
Memory: 512MB PC133 SDRAM Memory
Hard Drive: 60GB ATA100/7200RPM Hard Drive
Case: 300Watt Mid ATX Case
Floppy Drive: 3.5" 1.44MB Floppy Drive
Video Card: 64MB GeForce2 MX400 AGP Video Card
Sound Card: Onboard 32-Bit Sound
Modem: 56K V.90 AMR Modem
Networking Card: Onboard 10/100 NIC
CD-ROM Drive: None
DVD-ROM Drive: None
CD-RW Drive: 40x12x48x CD-RW Drive

Paid $475, not a bad price.
Now I'm looking for recommedations of the what the best OS would be for this machine. The other networked pc has W98SE. Any and all opinions appreciated.

[mcjamesk]

XP Pro

[Bigjakkstaffa]

2000 Pro, its XP but without all the excess and bloat...

--Jakk

[DocEvi1]

for stability go with Win2000 Pro or XP Pro.
XP tends to be a bit "kiddie fiddler" i.e. very garish and makes you feel simple when using it, compared to Win2K with SP3 - similar OS without the bloat and excess of XP....

Stay away from Win98SE or ME.

Stefan

[BipolarBill]

I have another recommendation. If you're not worried about encrypting files or micromanaging access to your PC or LAN, XP Home will suffice and save you as much as $100.

The primary difference between the Pro versions and XP Home:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/p.../choosing2.asp

[Ape0r]

Gentoo Linux baby!

[jmichna]

Another vote for W2K Pro or XP Pro.
jmichna

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Just read your original post in more detail, if its gonna eb acting as a server or host for the other machines its gotta be 2k in my book. It lacks the bloat of the XP systems and 9x isnt worth a look if your after system stability, as its constantly BSOD'ing.

--Jakk

[newcentury]

I should have clarified my statement. It will be networked to other machine but not necessarly be used as the server. Most of the networking that I will be doing is sharing printers and internet connection. I'm thinking that I can use one of the lesser machines for that. Like a Dell 566 with 40 gig hd and 512k ram. I would then put XP PRo on the server and on the new machine. The 3rd machine can't run XP, but I should still be able to share the hardware through the network, right?

[BipolarBill]

XP Pro/Home will run on the P3 566. Sharing is the same on all Windows OSes. Product activation will won't allow you to install XP more than once, BTW.

I still recommend Home.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Okay well then either XP or 2k on that machine, although id suggest whichever machine you make server you put 2k onto

--Jakk

[Cpl_Squirrel]

Originally posted by Ape0r
Gentoo Linux baby!

LOL, why not recommend Linux From Scratch while you're at it.

[Nukes]

Linux from scratch is great so long as you have SOME Linux experience and a working distro to build it all in. Very educational. But not too good if he wants it in active service quickly.
I would reccomend XP Pro or 2k Pro. I don't want to put you off XP as it is great, but uninstall the spyware before you do much with it.
If you want a Linux distro, Slackware.

[DocEvi1]

hmm, with the new details I agree with BB....XP Home or 2K Home may be the way to go....the price difference will be great while the difference isn't that great if you aren't to bothered about the loss of customisations.....

If you are creating a server, use 2k Server not 2k Pro.

Stefan

[AllGamer]

Originally posted by Bigjakkstaffa
2000 Pro, its XP but without all the excess and bloat...

--Jakk

Correct!

Another vote for Win2k Pro

you don't want your Workers waisting your money and time on silly Skin and Themes, and colors and trivial stuff that comes with WinXP