Should I spend the $20.00 for XP?

[cutie_pyie]

I have a Dell Pentium4 @ 1.3Ghz with 256MB RAM that I just bought in August.
It came with WIn-ME installed but they gave me a coupon so I can upgrade to Win XP for $20.00. I am sure it will be a OEM (Dell) upgrade CD(s).

I am pretty happy with Win-ME but just want to know if I shud spend the $20 bucks to HAVE the XP system anyway.

If I don't use it, I guess I can sell it to someone else who wants to upgrade to XP!

Can I partition (Partition Magic 7) my HD to have ME & XP both on it and choose which one I want at bootup?

Thanks for your help in this.

Sincerely,


CP

[[shawn@localhost /home]#]

well i just got XP myself and i hate it sooooo much!!! it came with my new computer because it's the newer thing and all games will be made for it from now on so i gotta get with the trend (i hope Linux will get game compatability soon!!!)

XP is the least user friendly OS i have ever used, it tells me that my ethernet card is working fine, it says it is sending and recieving signals but when i try to use IE it can't connect, Diablo2 can't connect to the internet either

as for game compatability? HA! yeah right, well they work and all but when you exit the game you have to restart your computer!!!! when i exit Half-Life, my mouse will stop working EVERY TIME. when i exit Diablo2 the screen goes this peach color, the mouse still moves but thats all... its basically frozen

[Explorer]

If you're happy with ME I wouldn't bother spending the money.

Until all the necessary patches for software and drivers for hardware are brought up to date, you're sure to run into trouble with something. You may also find yourself forced to spend even more money on newer versions of software because yours won't run with XP.

I installed it because I'm a self-employed computer tech and run a small retail shop. The new computers all have XP on them, so I have to learn as much about it as I can as quickly as I can.

I've learned it's a seemingly very stable operating system if, and it's a big if, all of your software and hardware is compatible with it. I had to change my sound card as the one that worked fine with Win98 crashed XP, my Expson printer lost functionality, my Excel spreadsheets refuse to print colors, etc, etc.

I don't see any compelling reason to upgrade if your existing operating system is stable and doing what you want.

[newclockr]

I've been running WinXP for the last 6 months, starting with the beta. Before installing, I ran the upgrade advisory tool and made the necessary changes to both hardware & software to prep my box.

Installation was easy, and after using it, I opted to spend the $$ for XP Pro as soon as it was released.

IMHO it's the best effort ever from MS! Sure there's a few games & other wares that don't run, but the compatibility wizard takes care of most of those probs. And, yes, it forced me to cough up extra $$ for Norton AV2002.

Overall XP is the most stable OS out there--I haven't seen a BSOD yet. To most ME users, I say don't spend the $99 for XP, BUT FOR ONLY $20--GO FOR IT!

PS: If you don't want it, I'll give you $40!

[tOtEM]

OMG .. I can't beleave what i'm reading here, Yes there are a few issues with XP. All fixable without waiting for Service Pack from M$.

The O.S. it's self is freaken rocken, Has more support for Hardware then Win98 and Win2k combined.

I haven't gotten a Blue screen of death AT ALL, and beleave me, i've crash all other O.S. I.E. Win98 "ME is a Lobotomy so it doesn't count" Win2k Pro and Server.

It's by far much faster and stable then Win9x and WIn2k

Making Audio CDs from your MP3 collection will never be easier "Right click on selected MP3s and select send to CD"

It goes on and on ..

By far, the very best O.S. on the market to date....

My old Epson Stylus prints great in it "Fully supported by XP, didn't need to install anything for it"

Full TWAIN support "Unlike all other M$ O.S." again, didn't have to install no drivers for my scanner.

What can I say, Till perhaps the next O.S. from M$ "Due late 2003 ish"

XP FREAKEN ROCKS

[newclockr]

I've been running WinXP for the last 6 months, starting with the beta. Before installing, I ran the upgrade advisory tool and made the necessary changes to both hardware & software to prep my box.

Installation was easy, and after using it, I opted to spend the $$ for XP Pro as soon as it was released.

IMHO it's the best effort ever from MS! Sure there's a few games & other wares that don't run, but the compatibility wizard takes care of most of those probs. And, yes, it forced me to cough up extra $$ for Norton AV2002.

Overall XP is the most stable OS out there--I haven't seen a BSOD yet. To most ME users, I say don't spend the $99 for XP, BUT FOR ONLY $20--GO FOR IT!

PS: If you don't want it, I'll give you $40!

[Steve R Jones]

Keep in mind that it will in all likelihood ONLY install on another Dell machine.

It looks for Dell code in the BIOS before allowing installation.

[LostBok]

For only $20, go for it!

Personally I'm sticking to win2000 until they release a service pack or two, but from everything I've heard thus far, it would seem that XP is yet another step in the right direction - win2000 made some great head-way of bringing NT stability and decent hardware support together and at long last turned it's back on all the DOS based rubbish (win95, win98, winME) that had been forced down all the home-users' throat for so long.

Apparently winXP can be configured and customised for different environments if you need specific games support. Not heard about having to restart after games though!

If you're getting ANY blue screens from winNT4, win2k or winXP, then there's about a 99% chance that there's either faulty hardware or conflicting drivers - nothing else should crash those boxes.

Buy top quality RAM, don't try to save money on your PSU and I normally Ghost my system drive up onto another disk before upgrading any drivers - that way if anythign goes wrong, you can get back to EXACTLY what you had before, no chance of any residual files messing things up...

[mcooper]

I don't mess with Windows much, but when I do it sucks with ME and 95. If you want a stable machine (with Micro$~1), I'd suggest NT or 2k depending on what you want to do. I've heard horror stories about XP Home.
shawn: I've heard you gripe about Linux game support before. Have you checked out www.linuxgames.com or www.transgaming.com ? Transgaming claims near-perfect support for Half-Life and Diablo2, both games you mentioned here. You can download transgaming's winex free from Sourceforge's CVS. Transgaming's list of supported games has grown exponentially in the past two months since it launched.

[RayH]

For $20, you might want to have it around. But the fact is, what will XP do for you that you can't already do?

For me, there is no benefit upgrading to XP. I don't want to find out if I need new software. Things work just fine as is!

[earnie86]

Go for XP; it is far superior in every aspect over win me. Far more stable, customizable etc. Dual boot with me and find out for yourself, if your pc was new in August, you may not have too many problems with incompatability.

[[shawn@localhost /home]#]

yeah right, there is no way you can say XP works with a straight face, there is NO WAY to use internet with it, i brought it to the tech guy at the store and he did exactly what the manual said to do for XP (i didn't get one because its OEM) and it says it's all set and ready, after selecting 'fix' it tells me that it is fixed and if there is a problem contact my administrator or the ISP

so i try IE again, nope no internet. thinking by this time maybe it's my hub that is a problem, i switch the ports around on the hub (celery was in slot 2 and athlon in slot 1, made it so celery was in slot 1 and athlon in slot 2) nope it still ain't working

***Edited for Language***SRJ

[Crummy]

I have a similar system from Dell and I wasn't all that impressed with ME, I spent the $20 bucks, well worth it. The upgrade is simple, and quick. I haven't had as many lockups, or BSOD's. Go for it.

[Sterling_Aug]

Why are you running a Class B network on two different subnets? It is no wonder that you can not share the Internet.

Which of the systems is set up with ICS and an assigned IP address (192.168.0.1) and which one is set up as the client with an auto assigned IP address using DHCP?

Are you using a Workgroup or Domain? Is each computer set to use the same workgroup?

Read this article and follow it word-for-word before you post again.

http://www.sysopt.com/articles/icsproxy/index.html

It took me 30 mins to get my 5 computer network set up and running ICS using Win98/WinNT/Win2K Pro/Win2K Server/WinXP. Every computer shares the Internet and every computer see and accesses each others resources.

[[shawn@localhost /home]#]

ok well actually i got XP working with the internet due to a suggestion from some guy telling me to set the IP manual

unless you have ANOTHER computer connected to the net dont even bother with XP, you need to specify your IP and DNS for the computer manualy and the only way to find that info out is to type in 'winipcfg' in Win98 or ME and writing down the IP and DNS servers then changing the last digit of the IP by 1

say the last set a numbers in my ip is 146, for my second computer i would have to set it to 147 or 145

also, the auto detect IP for XP does not work at all so if you dont have DSL or T1 or cable, you basically cannot use the internet