R wrote:
Lots of good viewpoints, I appreciate the comments!! Sounds like
it would be best and easiest to just stay with Windows xp dispite many
virus. I'll have to
look into what XP SP2 is (as Tim suggested it will be out soon), but I
gather it's
a new xp version with additional software features inclusive.

It's a service pack for XP geared around security. The new firewall is
supposed to be quite good. I have the SR release on my computer at work (I
use W2K SP4 at home), and it seems ok.

If you let Windows Update do it's thing, checking for critical updates and
installing them, then you'll probably be ok. Of course, a virus scanner is
almost essential these days, otherwise you just have to not run any programs
or connect to any other machine to be sure of not getting one. Symantec
Antivirus does a good job of looking after my machine.

Win98 is not a particularly good OS in terms of memory management and
multi-tasking. W2K and XP are MUCH better. Additionally driver support for
Win9x is fading... it's the past - it's 9 years old now, we've come a long
way.

I thought the E series chips were better and faster (but hotter), but not
sure if there is any reliability issues compaired to the C series pentium?


They'll be just as reliable... just harder to keep at sane temperatures,
meaning you'll need louder fans. They're also a lot more expensive for not
that much gain in performance.

Ben
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