RE: OT W2k or XP pro for a laptop

["Phil Harris" <phillip.harris1@xxxxxxx>]

> As you may know some bas$=A3*d stole my ipaq, laptop and other=20
> toys a few months ago, ipaqs are now replaced and its time to=20
> replace the laptop, the question is which OS to go for, I use=20
> w2k lots and I am verry used to it, I have one XP pro=20
> workstation (onely had it a couple of months), and although I=20
> hate the changes to the UI, I am getting used to it. Which is=20
> best for use on a mid spec laptop 1G P3 30Gb 256Mb ?

I have a PIII 500 with 320Mb (was 128Mb) and 20Gb HD ... It came with
98SE, I immediately installed 2k and ran with that for a while. I
installed XP back in October time and the only problem I had was with my
wireless LAN - this is now sorted and was due to XP defaulting to 128bit
encryption which isn't supported on my ORiNOCO silver cards.

Other than that I have had *NO* problems with Windows XP and would
certainly not consider going back to 2k.

Win XP does work really well on a laptop ... It certainly seems to be
better at power management than 2k and certainly survives going in and
out of standby better. I can't remember when I last turned this laptop
of but all I do is close and open the lid and that's it ... It starts up
again in about 10-12 seconds when I open the lid and I can swap between
my 11Mbit wireless LAN and 100Mbit cabled LAN seamlessly - even without
closing down and restarting web browsers etc. In fact if I have both
plugged in then it uses both connections simultaneously and appears to
try to load balance across them! (It can't as both go into the same
100Mbit switch but I'm impressed it tries!)

I dislike the XP look but the first thing I did was apply the win2k
"skin" and that's me a happy chappie again. (Display
Properties/Appearance/Windows Classic Style.)

XP definitely boots a load quicker on a laptop than 2k does ...
Especially if you have no LAN connections at the time. It's certainly
more responsive than Win2k (Both are the "Professional"
versions.)

Go on ... You'll love it. First OS from MicroSnot that I've actually
liked!

Phil