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| Obduction Backer |
Joined: Mon May 15, 2006 10:02 pm
Posts: 2266
Location: Tigard, OR
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Er, back to the original question as you've all veered off course and into a ditch...
Last time I checked, Windows 2000 is six years old, and XP is 5 years old. In terms of computer lifespans, that's ancient. We've really been pretty lucky that Microsoft hasn't been pushing new OSes down our throats every 2-3 years, like they did with Windows 95 (1995), Windows 98 (1998), and Windows ME (2000).
Furthermore, as Stevecrox has pointed out, support for 95, 98, and ME editions of Windows ended on July 11, 2006. Anyone that continues to run these operating systems is exposing him or herself to any security holes that may yet be discovered, or which Microsoft never bothered to fix.
Going forward, Microsoft is also planning that no more security fixes will be made available for XP with SP1 and SP1 as of October 10. Service Pack 2 is a free upgrade, so if you're on XP, applying it is strongly adviseable.
And now a personal testimonial, for all it's worth - I stuck with Windows 98 well into 2002, because at the time I wasn't ready to upgrade my computer and I didn't think that XP would deliver any significant benefits over 98. I was very skeptical because, though I'm a careful and fairly experienced computer user, I had a lot of problems with Windows 95 and 98. (98 was hardly an improvement over 95 and was really only necessary to provide support for newer USB devices.) Both 95 and 98 would regularly corrupt themselves and I'd have to boot into Safe Mode and then back to normal mode to clear out the garbage.
By comparison, Windows XP has been smoother than silk. I'm no Microsoft lover, but I've found that every time I've seen a "blue screen of death" in Windows XP, it has been directly traceable to a hardware error or a corrupt driver installation. Those cases are proveably not Microsoft's fault. And those cases have been rare. In 4 years, I can still count the number of BSODs I've seen on my fingers. Under Windows 98, not so; it would die at the slightest provocation. So just by its raw stability, XP earned my respect.
I understand that upgrading an operating system is a very expensive proposition. In addition to the time in backing up your applications and learning what is and isn't compatible with the new OS (Note: Windows XP has a very flexible backwards compatibility system), the OS itself isn't cheap. But from certain vendors, you can get the "OEM" version of Windows at a substantial discount, as long as you are purchasing it with hardware. "Hardware" is not well defined; if you buy Windows XP OEM from NewEgg.com, they'll throw in power splitter cable for 1 cent. Voila! Software purchased with hardware.
One last comment... I am not necessarily suggesting that you run out and buy Windows XP. Windows Vista is around the corner, and you can be certain that although not currently listed in the system requirements, Cyan will work to make Uru Live work on that platform as quickly as possible. In terms of making your hard earned cash count... it may be sensible to wait for Vista.
Hope this helps someone.
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