What advice would people offer on the relative merits of Windows 2000, Windows XP and the various Linux interfaces?

What is Windows 2000 better on than XP and vice versa etc.

I'm not that bothered price wise, just on the attributes.

I'm getting ready a couple of Celeron 800's for sale. Both exactly the same spec, just that one has Windows XP, the other Suse Linux.

XP starts up a bit quicker but it's general operation can get a bit sluggish - they only have 128Mb RAM. OpenOffice starts up much faster on the Linux box and the whole performance just seems to be much slicker than with Windows.

I wouldn't really recommend win 2000 for a home PC, it's more oriented towards a large scale network IMO, but XP will run your home network (assuming you have one) quite happily and has the built in firewall etc.

Originally posted by tslogf74
I wouldn't really recommend win 2000 for a home PC, it's more oriented towards a large scale network IMO, but XP will run your home network (assuming you have one) quite happily and has the built in firewall etc.

So will Win2000, why wouldn't you reccomend it for a home PC you didn't explain yor reasons?

Originally posted by Skatiechik
So will Win2000, why wouldn't you reccomend it for a home PC you didn't explain yor reasons?

Quite, I actually want some plusses and minuses here, not just "Win XP is better for home users", what aspects of WIN XP are different to Win 2000?

I've used both and aside from the appearence I couldn't really put my finger on what difference it has made to me.

Originally posted by Yodameister
...aside from the appearence I couldn't really put my finger on what difference it has made to me.

Therein lies the answer, from a user's point of view.

Only other difference is that 2000 Pro is up to Service Pack 4 :P

Well I find the availability of drivers for home PC type devices like sound cards better in XP than 2000, and the difference will probably become more marked over time as product develpoment is more XP focussed.

It is really about personal preference/experience though. Sorry, I was just giving opinion.

I'm not too familiar with some of the features in 200 but xp has more drivers as tslogf74 said and enhanced features for things like media production i.e. photographs etc. I wouldn't have thought that xp was better on security because although it has a built in firewall it isn't a particularly good one and is easily got round.

Windows 200 is the update of windows NT so was originally aimed at the business market (hence tslogf74's comment) whereas xp was originally aimed at the home user.

Can't comment on Linux as I have never used it.

Hope this helps.

I'd advise you to steer clear of Linux unless you have a lot of time on your hands. Windows has (at last) reached the stage where most things "just work". With Linux on the other hand, although the initial installation is now quite painless you are still likely to find yourself digging out the C++ compiler if you have any slightly non-standard hardware components.

It recently took me three days to get a wireless network card running under Linux. And I'm hardly a Linux newbie (been using it since 1994). The same card, under Windows, was plug-and-play. Part of the problem is that many hardware manufacturers don't produce drivers for Linux, so you have to "roll your own" or hope that somebody else has already done it for you - it's similar to the problem you're likely to experience using Windows 2000, only a hundred times worse.

Windows XP pro / home is probably they best choice for the person who isn't computer savvy (if you are then Linux is good). The biggest advantage over Windows 2000 is that it's more secure - Microsoft are no longer producing the same number of patches for windows 2000 and in fact they are even refusing to launch a SP5 for it (which it needs!). In addition to this XP has a more secure version of Internet Explorer (has pop up blockers etc) and of course comes with it's own basic firewall system.

Interface-wise between W2K and XP there isn't much - XP is fancier and all nice looking but for those that hate the new look you can knock it back to looking very similar to W2K without losing anything.

As for the Linux world - I'd personally go for Suse Linux http://www.novell.com/products/linuxprofessional/preview/ is a preview of the latest edition and it come very fully featured.