is windows 2000 prof the best???

**kiranchaithanya** · August 31st, 2005, 12:37 AM

hellow pple....
all these days i had been using Windows XP prof... a few days back one of my friends suggested to change to win 2000 prof..... coz win xp eats up my memory... so is win 2000 better than 98 and XP...?

**3fingersalute** · August 31st, 2005, 05:51 AM

I would say it mostly depends on what you're using it for, what hardware you have (XP does require a "beefier" system than 2000 does), and its also a matter of personal preference.

Both are a far cry better (and more secure) than Windows 98 though!

**confus-ed** · August 31st, 2005, 06:08 AM

What do you mean by 'better' ? Win 98 is 'best' in terms of least memory requirement, then w2k, then xp - but in terms of 'better' how other folks might mean matters, completely the other way around ! .. I'm glad it's just not me gets confus-ed !

XP loves memory & the more you throw at it the better it gets performance wise, but it does indeed have more 'overhead' than other operating systems & you want at least 512mb to run it 'nice' imho .. Wheras w2k is probably quite happy with only 128mb or so.

So how much memory are we talking aout ..?

**joeace1** · September 1st, 2005, 12:56 AM

Originally Posted by confus-ed

What do you mean by 'better' ? Win 98 is 'best' in terms of least memory requirement, then w2k, then xp - but in terms of 'better' how other folks might mean matters, completely the other way around ! .. I'm glad it's just not me gets confus-ed !

XP loves memory & the more you throw at it the better it gets performance wise, but it does indeed have more 'overhead' than other operating systems & you want at least 512mb to run it 'nice' imho .. Wheras w2k is probably quite happy with only 128mb or so.

So how much memory are we talking aout ..?

Both are true statments, But since unless you have an extended agreement with MS if you goto 2000 your not going to have as much support as XP. Granted I run both but I like 2000 for somethings and Xp for others like the gang says its your preference

**slgrieb** · September 1st, 2005, 10:17 AM

I don't feel divided on this issue at all. Run XP. It will be supported for years (W2K is about end-of-life), it has better compatability with older Windows software (particularly games) than W2K, and you already own it. Apparently, it came on your system, so you should have the hardware to run it. Granted, some of the entry machines only ship with 128 MB of memory, but a memory upgrade is cheap.

Besides, the only way for you to legally install W2K, is to buy a full version, format the drive, install the OS, then reload all your software and data files. There is no Windows 2000 Professional Downgrade Edition. I have several business clients running 2000, and I'm encouraging them to migrate to XP, before they start to run into support issues like "Oh, sorry, did we forget to mention that the network scanning software for your new PrintMax XTreme DocuCenter requires XP Pro?"

**Thag** · September 1st, 2005, 12:26 PM

Actually, if you read the EULA for WinXP Pro, it gives you the right to run a previous version of windows instead (i.e. Win2K Pro). The same "downgrade option" is also in the Office EULA (i.e., buy an Office 2003 license and use Office XP or 2000 instead).