Which Windows Best for Freeware?

  • Thread starter Thread starter howard schwartz
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howard schwartz

Traditional wisdom about the newer versions of windows, 2000, XP, and perhaps
Longhorn, based on NT, not dos, is that they are much more stable, secure, and
helpful in recovery than windows 9x, based on dos. However, this come at the
price of backward compatibility. Not only do they usually use the new and
different NTFS file system, compared to FAT; they are slower for the same
hardware, or require a new processor and/or more ram. Older hardware (e.g.
parallel port scanners, devices that do not use USB ports, etc.) and many
older windows and dos programs will not run on them.

For instance, older software that accesses the hardware directly can not
talk to the ``hardware abstraction layer''.

In light of this trade off, which windows for the run of the mill home user,
would be best for running a reasonable set of freeware?

Will a large amount of good freeware not run on NT based windows, because
is was written for dos-based type of windows?
 
howard said:
In light of this trade off, which windows for the run of the mill
home user, would be best for running a reasonable set of freeware?

Will a large amount of good freeware not run on NT based windows,
because is was written for dos-based type of windows?
Click to expand...

If you're asking what operating system you should use if you plan on
making the most use of the available freeware, I would answer that it
depends on your hardware. A clean install of W98se on an older, slower
machine will give good performance and will have plenty of freeware
applications available. With newer and faster hardware, I would
recommend using W2K -- it gives you the advantages of NTFS and easier
networking without a lot of the bloat and Fischer-Price nonsense of XP.
There are a few freeware apps that won't run on NT systems, but the
great, great majority do. And as time goes by, as new freeware apps and
updates become available, they'll have to be written with W2K/XP in mind
to have any real world applicability.

Long story short -- pick the best OS for your hardware and pocketbook.
You'll find plenty of freeware to use on it, regardless of your choice.
 
I tend to agree with Marc,

With a little note:
that I tend to use Windows 98SE for gaming purposes (not all games -
especialy the somewhat older ones - are to keen on w2k video drivers)

For office /internet PC's I tend to go for 2000 (as it has somewhat better
security messures and behaves more nicely in a LAN).

I would not advice windows 95, or windows ME (though there are a hand full
of people who manage to run windows ME without real problems)

Windows 98 FE and Windows XP can be used.
I tend to see W98 FE as an alpha version of 98 SE, while XP for me is
windows 2000 with the wrong default property values. I mean, I know that I
do not behave my age, but to start windows in a tellytubby enviroment...
come on!

MigthyKitten
 
If you're asking what operating system you should use if you plan on
making the most use of the available freeware, I would answer that it
depends on your hardware. A clean install of W98se on an older, slower
machine will give good performance and will have plenty of freeware
applications available. With newer and faster hardware, I would
recommend using W2K -- it gives you the advantages of NTFS and easier
networking without a lot of the bloat and Fischer-Price nonsense of XP.
There are a few freeware apps that won't run on NT systems, but the
great, great majority do. And as time goes by, as new freeware apps and
updates become available, they'll have to be written with W2K/XP in mind
to have any real world applicability.
Click to expand...

I suspect W2K has had its day too. XP Pro seems to be picking up
major users around here for their "standard desktop environment" and
the "default" system on retail PCs these days seems to be XP Home.
But maybe W2K is sufficiently close to XP that my nitpicking is
irrelevant in this context?
Long story short -- pick the best OS for your hardware and pocketbook.
You'll find plenty of freeware to use on it, regardless of your choice.
Click to expand...

Just be aware that support for older systems and applications tends to
diminish with time. (But some seem to go on happily forever without
that backup anyway -- my newsreader for example. :)


Cheers, Phred.
 
In light of this trade off, which windows for the run of the mill home user,
would be best for running a reasonable set of freeware?
Click to expand...

My solution was to partition my hard-drive & format one partition (E: in my
case, since I have three partitions) as FAT. I use Win2K as my OS, but
programs which only run on FAT are installed on E:. I have no idea if this
*should* work, but it does - I can run software for Win98, I have the
stability of Win2K Pro, & I've never lost any data yet :-)
 
(e-mail address removed) (Phred) wrote:
Click to expand...
I suspect W2K has had its day too. XP Pro seems to be picking up
major users around here for their "standard desktop environment" and
the "default" system on retail PCs these days seems to be XP Home.
But maybe W2K is sufficiently close to XP that my nitpicking is
irrelevant in this context?
Click to expand...

I must confess, my mind was already in a negative state for XP before
I tried it. The greed alone makes mw wince.

It is extremely fast and more bulletproof than 98Se though on a fast
machine: 2.6Ghz versus 500 Mhz for 98SE.

I'm not pushing to sell anything for MS, but I was quite shocked at
the performance of XP Pro. All of the freewares that I ran run fine on
it. Kerio 2.1.5, AVG, editors, etc.
 
I must confess, my mind was already in a negative state for XP before
I tried it. The greed alone makes mw wince.

It is extremely fast and more bulletproof than 98Se though on a fast
machine: 2.6Ghz versus 500 Mhz for 98SE.

I'm not pushing to sell anything for MS, but I was quite shocked at
the performance of XP Pro. All of the freewares that I ran run fine on
it. Kerio 2.1.5, AVG, editors, etc.
Click to expand...

Yeah. Mate of mine was a bit concerned about how his *old* Pascal
stuff would go on it and turned out to have no problems at all. I've
heard that it also has some sort of "compatability" mode for things
that are *really* fussy about their O/S, and that works well too when
needed. As someone still struggling with that all-time classic dog,
Windows ME, I'm finding it difficult to believe MS may have finally
got something nearly right! 8-)


Cheers, Phred.
 
Entire OS and all contained software is free. Can't get more free
that that. You can even run it just from the CD to see if it's for you
or not.

I use PCLinuxOS and even my mother finds it easier to use than
Windows. And with ISP's such as webpath.us offering dialup and DSL
and fully supporting Linux, there is nothing keeping anyone from at
least trying another operating system any longer. My mother who had
used Windows for less than a year is now running PCLinuxOS and says
it's easier and I don't have to worry about keeping her virus/spyware
software up to date or reinstalling it when she does contract a virus
or spyware.

There is a review with several categories listed. Below is from the
review at : http://on-disk.com/product_info.php/products_id/35
The LiveCD: (Outstanding)
As it booted I hit the "F2" key to see the details of and PCLinuxOS
detected and installed ALL my hardware correctly! I've never had a
Microsoft Windows install do that.
Installation: (Outstanding)
I simply had to tell it to go ahead and everything was installed
automatically. The install from start to finish took about half an
hour. I have never had an install of any operating system go so
smoothly and I've done hundreds of installs.
Applications: (Outstanding)
Stability: (Outstanding)
Speed: (average)
Reviewers Opinion:
In my opinion the PCLinuxOS is an excellent choice for even a novice
computer user. The PCLinuxOS LiveCD is easier to install, use, and
more complete than any version of Microsoft Windows or any operating
system I have ever installed.
 
Entire OS and all contained software is free. Can't get more free
that that. You can even run it just from the CD to see if it's for you
or not.

I use PCLinuxOS and even my mother finds it easier to use than
Windows. And with ISP's such as webpath.us offering dialup and DSL
and fully supporting Linux, there is nothing keeping anyone from at
least trying another operating system any longer.
Click to expand...

You're mistaken. There are millions of people running desktop PCs that
don't support booting from CD-ROM, and more millions with laptops that
don't have an internal CD-ROM. The former require a boot floppy to run
a LiveCD, the latter need both a boot floppy and a pcmica floppy. Last
time I checked, PCLinuxOS does not provide either of the image files
(boot.img and pcmcia.img) required to create these floppies. Knoppix
has provided boot.img files in the past, but no pcmcia.img to date.





Achim



axethetax
 
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