chuckster

I got a friend(ish) who's in the market for a new laptop. He's happy with the hardware choice (IBM Thinkpad) but needs to decide on the OS. Windows ME or Win2000.
Applications are general office stuff, no 3d games.
Is one of the OS mentioned more suited to laptop application than the other?
Opinions?
Txs folks
Chuck

James Adlington

I've been using Win 2000 on my laptop (Dell Inspiron) with no problems at all. Seems quite laptop friendly & very stable. Never used ME, but I've not seen any reason to given that Win 2000 is very stable & can cope with games, multi-media etc to a reasonable extent as well

druddle

imho win me will run slower than win2k as its basically glorified win98. but, it really depends what you want to use the machine for.

if you are running win2k (or nt) and intend to play games then remember that the OS uses the HAL and the game software has to go through the HAL to get to the hardware and it can make it run slower (i think thats right !!)

but i guess this doesnt apply with a notebook, also it doesnt apply if you have a fast machine (1Ghz and upwards),

i run win2k pro sp2 on my fujitsu-siemens notebook (733 mhz, 128mb mem) and it goes like lightning !!

dave



[This message has been edited by druddle (edited 20 June 2001).]

RichB

...should have got a Mac...

IWatkins

Chucky-Egg,

If any 'good' games are a necessary requirement, then I'd avoid W2K. However, if he/she wants a stable office application environment, then W2K it has to be.

Me ? I'd stick with DOS mate, much quicker

Cheers

Ian

GranTurismo

Unfortunatley due to the fact that laptops seem to have "wierd" architecture and drivers etc I find that it is best to stick to the OS that comes shipped on the beast.

Most laptops have an OEM version of some OS on em.

Unless your mate is either an confident IT person/Needs to run a specific application or is a sado massochist Stick to what you get.

I have loads of IT experiance and I cant be arsed to mess about with this sort of thing anymore, I just want to write emails to customers :-(

Good luck,

Dave

chuckster

Thanks folks, Dave I agree 100pct. I'm assuming, however that IBM has offered him the choice here.
Win2k seems the way to go. I'm assuming it won't be made redundant by win2.2k in a years time. Windows ME sounds a bit lame anyway. What was all that new millenium fuss all about anyway? LOL
Cheers
Chuck
oh, Rb, LOL If only there were some decent mac aps around, I guess thats a function of no decent mac developers though

InvisibleMan

Chucky-Egg, now that was a kewl game

boomer

Win2K is the best, but i expect that it costs more than ME to buy if this is a factor.

It also depends on whether that laptop is going to be standalone, or link to a corporate network (that may go W2K anyway).

mb

boxst

Hello

I've been using Windows XP (beta 2) on my IBM ThinkPad for a few weeks and it's great.

It runs games and office wonderfully.

So if you can get hold of this it might suffice as it combines the best of both worlds until it's released officially in October.

Steve.

boomer

Beware (i think) that XP demands that you register - anonymously (after 30 days) is not an option!

mb

Miles

My Vaio came with OEM Win98SE with all the correct Sony drivers pre-installed - upgraded it about a year ago (I think) to W2K. Did try the Sony drivers for W2K but they didn't really work - removed 'em and used the standard MS drivers as W2K laptop support is the best of any OS, period.

Since W2K went on, never looked back - much quicker, responsive and <B>stable</B> than Win98SE. Also as your friend(ish) isn't bothered about games, no worries - well worth the extra cost.

GranTurismo

Win ME is a bit pants, I use it on my laptop as it was the pre install, but If I had the choice I would use w2k on a high spec PC. the "NT" OS are better than the 9x ME ones but the differences are less appareant on a laptop.

chuckster

Txs alot folks, he's gone win2k.

polarbearit

Win 2k everytime. Wouldn't entertain NT on a laptop as there is no naitive support for Plug and Play/Power Management etc. Windows ME updat on 98 and would be 2nd choice though I would describe it (along with 95/98) as flakey!!

One thing about win2k is don't bother without 128mb of Ram and 192 is definately worthwhile. Run my 650 laptop (on win2k) with 256 mb and it flies.

Jon