There is no Non Fruity version of XP.

XP is just like prostitution, its a victumless crime more or less, but its also disgusting. And then there are some who like prostitution and we can see who they are.

Was that the worst analogy ever or what ?

haha=) It's kind of like :
"His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free."

lol...

Very intresting Ivan

personaly. i wouldnt hesitate a seocnd if there was Mac OS X for pc :)but then again, if i know apple, there never will be. ever.

Running OSX on a PC, wonderful. Now you have an OS that may be cool but nothing to run on it. Sounds like a good plan, if you dont plan on using your PC for anything more than web browsing.

Or graphic design, audio creation, video creation, audio/video editing, multimedia creation, gaming, document creation, and many more.

phree but then again you could do all that in W2K already, so what a waste.

I haven't had a chance to install an XP system yet, wether it's a Home or Pro version.

What's all the hoopla about the copy protection and cd-key?

I'm still holding out with Win 2k.

ok my problem with windows XP is that M$ has obviously just stopped thinking about the users. Nobody wants to deal with Product Activation and in fact that prevented me from buying it. When it came out I would have bought it quickly to try it, but WPA prevented me from doing it. I bought a legit copy of win2k for the express reason that it had no copy protection, and wouldn't bitch when I installed it on my laptop. Does this make me a bad person? maybe, but I don't think so. Does this make me a software pirate? No. Software pirates are the 'bad' people that make millions of fake CDs and sell them as genuine. Would I have bought another copy of win2k to install on my laptop for $300? Prolly not. However I've recommended win2k to many others who have bought it, that wouldn't have otherwise. As I see it, I cost microsoft $300 (maybe, assuming I would've bought it) while making them $900+. And I'm happy.

Another thing is that 2k is MAYBE worth the $300. I have used WinXP Home and Pro, both coupled with Office XP, both on other peoples computers. And I hated it. I admit that I didnt have time to really use it much, but just setting up the computer out-of-box was awful. Every ten damn seconds I'd get a popup saying I needed a MS Passport, or some BS like that. And configuring the thing was worse, microsoft seems to have gone through the entire OS and replaced every normal config screen with a wizard. The sad thing is that it could be so much better with one simple feature addition:
a "**** Off" button
This button, when pressed would immediately dismiss whatever focus-stealing popup, animated character or wizard is currently being displayed and make it never come back ever again. This button would be used 50-300 times within the first day of use and then the user would be happy.


And yes I know there are apps that kill the wizards. And yes I know that you can hack it to uninstall MSN Messenger. But as I see it, I shouldnt have to hack an OS to make it work the way its supposed to. Win2k works. I put the CD in the drive and it loads, treating me like an intelligent user not some baby that needs animated dogs to help me along every step. The drivers work, it doesnt crash, and my apps run. I'm happy. As I see it, winXP/OfficeXP/IE6 are a step backwards. And I dont think its worth the downgrade.

alot of the complaints come from the interface.....its just like anything else it takes time to get used to....

Actually, I love the print preview feature in IE 6. That alone was worth the move up.

True, any interface takes time to get used to. However that's not to say that some are better than others. For example, my first programmable remote control had a single red LED that would blink in patterns based on what you were doing. This combined with procedures in the manual allowed one to program codes from other remote controls. Now, my Pronto has a GUI that lets me program codes, or a computer link that does it for me. Both are interfaces. Both take getting used to. That still doesnt change the fact that the LED sucks compared to the Pronot's LCD.

I realize this is overstated but the point I'm trying to make is that a wizard simply isn't as good as a setup menu. Wizards (and LEDs) may be good for people that don't understand what's going on and would rather follow a procedure than understand how to set it up. However I prefer the large setup screen with a thousand options over the wizard any day. Maybe its just me.

I personally prefer IE5, IE5 Sp1 to be specific, as SP2 made HTTP Referrer much harder to ditch (makes it harder when idiots host images off geoshitties). But that's me, to each his own.

(also you probably know this but IE6 can be installed on top of Win2k, so you can get a useful browser without the fugly/useless OS.

I like IE6 and OfficeXP, just because it has the words XP in it, doesn't means its all bad.

what are you talking about? Of course it does!

...although more in a symbolic way, XP is where MS stopped listening to the customer. They knew whatever they made, if by any measure it could be deemed better people would buy it. Thus, XP. If microsoft keeps this kind of stuff up (more detail including their backing down when just about everyone complained here), they'll keep driving customers away until they have none left. (this isn't necessarily a bad thing). The fact is that MS strives when under stiff competition. Now they have none. So no pressure to make products and decisisons that benefit consumers. And for those that dont feel like clicking the links, M$ demanded several large school districts audit tens of thousands of seats for license compliance within a very short deadline, and wouldn't back off until just about everyone complained. Now most of the districts are looking into setting up Linux systems... not because its cheaper, but because their vendor doesnt have them by the balls.