Hi, I would like to start using Windows 2000, but I have some great reservations because I''ve heard some rumors about it.... I was wondering if anyone could tell me following things: - If I make my own programs (for example with Visual C++)using Win2000, are they compatible with Win98? - I have 450mhz PII processor and 128mb of memory. Someone told me if I want to use for example Visual C++ or Corel Draw with Win2000, I should get more memory and a better processor, is it true? (will my computer be "overloaded" and will it slow down if I install such a memory consuming system?) I mean if Win2000 consumes 64mb memory, I still have 64mb for VC++, is it enough for effective work? - Are Win95/98 applications generally compatible with Win2000? - I''ve heard that Win2000 is better suited for companies, it is too demanding for a home computer, is it true? I mean should I get it or wait for the Windows Millennium? If anyone has good or horrible experiences working with Win2000, I would like to hear about it because I am wondering if I should get it or not.... Thanks in advance !!

Like all operating system choices, it depends upon what you do with your computer. I personally have Win2000 (with a PII-450, 128 Mb RAM) and it performs wonderfully - much better for programming tasks. Its also very stable. Make sure that all your hardware is supported before you think of upgrading. If you are really attached to many old games, then you either want to setup for dual booting or not upgrade - very few DOS programs, and quite a few badly written/old DirectX games don''t work. All the games I play normally work fine - Civ, Alpha Centauri, the Quake games, Unreal Tournament, Ultima IX (its a lot more stable under Win2k!), Starcarft, that type of game. Most recent releases work just fine.

If you compile a program under Win2k, it will work just fine with Win98 (as long as appropriate versions of DirectX are installed) unless you use one of the few Win2000 specific commands you can find in the platform SDK.

Remember that Win2k is basically an uptodate Windows NT (with DirectX 7 support, modern hardware support, and quite a few enhancements). It is not the followup to Win9x - if you want that, get WinME. MS hope to merge the two product lines (finally dropping the DOS kernel - thank heavens) sometime in the next 3 years - I for one really hope that they pull it off!

About the two lines merging - probably not within the next 3 years. A Microsoft rep visited my Uni about a month ago and gave a talk on the Windows product line and Microsoft''s aims for the future. From what I can gather there will be at least one more version of the Windows 9x line after Millennium, but DOS will be dropped in Millennium. I think they''re hoping that most people will have migrated to Win2000 by then.

=> Arfa <=

I have win2000 running on a PII-350 with 128MB RAM and it runs fine. So far all the games I''ve wanted to run on it have run just fine. The only problem I''ve had is with my SB Live card. It was not immediately supported in Win2K and I can only get the front 2 channels and no digital output. The updated drivers from Creative''s site proceeded to crash my computer, so I''m waiting a little for new ones to come out.

Other than that I haven''t had any problems with it. I often have VC++, PSP 6, WinAmp and IE all running at the same time and it works fine.

As far as compiling on Win2K and running on 98--I haven''t tried, but I am curious as to the answer myself.

bcj

I have a pII 450 with 256 mgs of ram and windows 2000 runs great. I had some minor problems with games and opengl at first but they were all fixed after i down loaded new drivers, and updates they were all fixed. Yes you can make games/software compiled on windows 2000 and it runs fine on win98/nt. I finnally having an operating system that is super stable so i can code on it and play games on as well. It just basically rocks and i feel it was definately worth it. I think microsoft has been overly pushing people away from getting it saying it should only be for buisnesses but i think this may just be a ploy to get people to buy windows millenium. There are alot of compatibility issues though with dos.. i haven''t seen any but then i don''t run too many dos apps so i wouldn''t know. You should definately check if your hardware is compatible with windows 2000 though. There are alot of companies that don''t have drivers yet or just plain won''t support it.

Coding is not just a profession its a way of life.

Win2k is highly recommended by the DirectX team for development. Your programs will still be compatible with Win9x as long as you don''t use any NT specific stuff.

Win2K will catch many programming errors that the 9x series will not (things like null pointers). Bottom line: Win2k is far less likely to crash during development than 9x.

MS is hyping Win2k for businesses primarily because DX driver support, while improving, is not at the level of optimization as that of Win9x. So, for a while at least, many games will either not function as intended, or not function at all. However, it''s supposedly a Windows developer''s dream, not only because it''s less likely to crash, but because it''s so much easier to debug in.

Yes

As in ''yes'', you should get Win2k.

I am a professional developer and have had to jump across various operating systems in the last year.

Started with Win95. Not very fun.

Moved to WinNT 4.0. NT is much better for my purposes, and overall a much better system IMO. Unfortunately, one custom piece of hardware/software went directly to the parallel port, which means it won''t work under NT. So I had a dual-boot system.

Upgraded Win95 to Win98. Mostly use it for game playing, since NT 4.0 didn''t do that well.

Installed Win 2000 Pro. Now I have a triple-boot system. I was very wary, because of the reports of so many bugs. I''m pretty sure I''ve seen a couple, although they have been minor. As far as Windows systems go, I much happier. W2K is the much more effective NT system underneath with all the "modern" stuff that Win98 had for so long. (USB, DX7, etc). It''s a little tough with certain things, because not all of my add-ons have up-to-date drivers yet. But things are getting better.

So now I spend most of my time in W2K.

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