Question about Computers

[Deathwalker]

I'm planning to buy a new computer soon and as there going to put XP on it by default. I was wandering if I should keep this OS or install another one instead, as I've heard some bad things about XP

[Urban Ranger]

Assuming that you want to use it to play Civ 3, I'd say stick with 98SE. However, depending on where you get the computer from, you may not get a CD from which you can reinstall XP. In that case your best bet is to stick with XP.

[Sarxis]

I would stick with 98 second edition:

XP takes over a gigabyte of hard-drive storage for installation- I guess they needed more room for Media Player skins.

Some of your older apps may not be compatible with XP- Civ2 might have problems, for instance. There is supposed to be some 'make compatible' software included, but I have heard that it doesn't work most of the time.

XP is supposed to be more stable than 98 or 95, and is supposed to recover from program crashes well. But I have yet to really see any major problems from 98 SE along these lines- except when I am messing around with stuff (ALT tasking; modding apps; DLing 27 streams of pRoN at once; etc.)

Win98 is clean, simple to use and configure.

[GodSpawn]

I'd go for XP, particularly on a new system (how big will the disk be? 20 or 30GB I'd guess).

My experience with XP has so far been very positive - all the games that I want to play work just fine (including CIV2).

Also, there's one game that wouldn't work under W98 or WME on my particular system, but it does work under XP because I can select a compatibility setting to make it work (the game is Magic: Spells of the Ancients in case you're interested).

One thing: You may need to use the latest graphics drivers for the card that you're using. My Radeon 64 DDR performed poorly until I used their latest drivers, after which it was indistinguishable from the W98 speed.

My experience of W98/WME has been less than stellar...

[Rince]

I would install Win98 SE.

I had Win2k on my new computer but the advantages weren't that high so i switched to Win98 SE and Linux. The computer now starts in about 20 seconds, which is really cool.

Win98 SE is still the best for gaming, and Linux still the best for the rest.

I mean, computers get faster and faster, but at the same time most OS get fatter and fatter, so the working speed remains more or less the same, but if you put Win98 on a state of the art computer things get really fast.

Greetings,

Michi

[Stuie]

I'll add my vote for WIN98 Second Edition. It's the last operating system a gamer will ever need (at least for now....).

I never buy a new Microsoft O/S until it's been out for at least a year. They have more bugs than an ant farm and usually ignore anything that will help gaming.

[Provost Harrison]

I have just started using XP and it has been fine with everything I have used. I have been using Colonization for Windows, which is older than Civ2, and that runs fine with no problems whatsoever. So there should be no problem at all with Civ3, after all, Firaxis have said they have been using it on Win2k...

[ooo]

hmmmm well XP is currently the best for anything...it is faster than 2k..mine boots in 30secs so i dont no wat ur talkin about...all games work in it and i played a lot in it .....it never crashes unlike winblows 98 and me which i dont understand how anyone can claim is good as it crashes constantly whenever you try to do anything more involved.....just get the newest drivers for everythng and u wont have any prolems.....its still micro**** tho so it aint perfect.

[Grim Legacy]

LOL @ this thread.

WinXP = over a gigabyte? ROFL LOL WHAHAHA, Media Player skins indeed. I remember being shocked by the huge Win98 footprint of 250... bloated as hell already.

Win98 clean and simple ghehehehehe. Right. The last reasonably clean OS Bill churned out was DOS 6.22. :P

[Robm]

This thread is very funny. Don't beat your self up to hard over the decision to get XP or Win98.

But if you must then consider this idea: make sure the vendor that sells you the new computer gives you the install CD for XP. Then go purchase a used copy of Win 98 for real cheap from someone. It will be a few years before XP is cheap, but I'm sure you can find Win98 easily. Then if XP is not good enough for you, install your cheap copy of Win98. If you find you made a mistake no big deal, go back again. One thing is for sure, no matter what copy of Microsoft OS you choose, it will have problems of some sort.

[Ironwolf]

Had nothing but trouble with Win 98. (Crash Test #98) Don't have XP yet, but ME runs smooth.

[Rasbelin]

My recommendations are Win 98 and Win 98 SE.
Win ME works, but it's reserves disk space for
that useless restore function.
I would be a bit careful with Win XP,
but if it's included with the PC, then just
use it and don't go "backwards".

[Urban Ranger]

My overall experience with Windoze Me is abysmal, so my suggestion is to skip it. Windoze 98SE is your best choice, since 95 OSR2 doesn't run on the faster processors, and 2000/XP is a lot of bloat.


Grim,

What can they do? Civ 3 runs under Windoze only. You can't expect the average user to play around with plex86 or some other Windoze emulator/VM under *nix.

[Leonidas]

Also, ask the vendor to install REMOVABLE HARDDRIVES. This way you can have a couple of harddrives - one with XP and another with Win98, and can interchange them whenever you want.

Removable harddrives allow you to get bigger harddrives without the pain of having to buy a whole new system.

Just a thought

[Adagio]

The best solution would defently be to have 2 OS on the machine:

WinXP as the standard OS
and
Win Me as the "just in case WinXP doesn't work with a particular program/game" OS

The only problems I have with WinXP is my old graphic card (isn't supported by WinXP, but works most of the time), the other problem is after I installed the app Easy CD Creator 5 (DON'T DO THAT), I believe that was my first crash and my last crash I have seen... I haven't seen any Blue screens in other situations than after installing that other app...

Just my few pennies