Thr Right OS

Well here is my situation... maybe some of you all can help direct me to the best OS for me.
Right now I am running WIN 98 SE, its actually pretty stable though I typically have to doa clean install of windows every 4-6 months due to OS decay. This is not a big problem since I partition my hard drive so all my collection of music and data and all that good stuff is on another partition. I really don't want to get WIN XP because of all the privacy stuff surrounding microsoft. I just took an internet law class here at college and its scary how much sh*t they put in windows xp and even the new version of windows media player that "phones home" to microsoft at every install. So where do i go if i want to upgrade?

thanks in advance

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I personally prefer Windows 2000 Pro (as far as Microsoft OS's go...)
You don't have the privacy problems with 2K like you do with XP, and they are both NT based (vs. MS-DOS based like 98)

There are solutions to the XP problem - get and run a program called XPAntiSpy. Search http://board.midibuddy.net/search.php?s= for 'xpantispy'
It allows you to correct most of the privacy problems. Also, do not rely on XP's built-in firewall... It obviously won't list a finger to stop all traffic... YOu're going to want an impartial 3rd-party firewall or two.

I would go with Windows 2K - but XP can be made to work too - either way, go with an NT-based OS, not MS-DOS.

If you are looking for an OS that is *mostly* free of many of those kinds of problems. I would encourage you to look at a Unix based OS. Not only are they open source (which allows you complete access to all of the OS) but it allows you greater flexability in deciding how to personalize your computing expirence.

The only unfortuniate disadvantage is that most Unix OS's are unfriendly to the average user.

My personal preference is XP - although until recently was not aware of the privacy issues. Since upgrading to XP, the system has been almost completely stable and I have had no real problems at all.

Jon

well it's a midid board so why not suggest the humble mac! would be perfect for your music needs. Rock solid too

probably one of the best windows OS's is windows 2000
i never had big problems with it and just runs and runs and runs for days.
WinXP slows down if you use it for several months

about the privacy thing:
the phone home options of the media player and win Xp can be switched off.
there serveral tools on the net for this.

unix or linux is for me personal just a server os no workstation os.

umm, if u get win2k, and are worried about piracy, then dont use service pack 3. m$ has something in the EULA about letting them access your comp

fun stuff

I REALLY, REALLY recommend Windows 2000 Pro (as far as Microsoft OS's go...)
You won't have the privacy problems with Win 2000 like you would XP, and they are both based on NT. Not to mention 2000 is sooooooo much more stable. Before when I was using 98SE I was rebooting between 4 to 6 times everyday! And a really bad day could have me rebooting as much a 10 time per day!! Now I've have 2000 Pro for several months and so far, 0 unplanned reboots or system wide crashes and 0 defrags!! Get it you'll be sooo glad you did! But before you do get 2000, check to make sure all of you device drivers are Windows 2000 compadible. Nothing worse than installing a new OS and discovering that your sound card doesn't work!


P.S. Do not even try to use Windows XP! It is nothing but garbage.
Just because it looks cool doesn't mean it's any good!
And I do not find it to be as fast or as stable as Windows 2000
Professional. Micro$oft is already trying to push us all away
from Windows 2000 and get us all to go to XP which as I said is trash,
but just as soon as everbody is using XP, Microsoft will come up
with some new and "improved" operating system to get us all to pay for.
And like you said XP is a HUGE invasion of privacy.


Anyway, Good Luck!

XP's great!