Not too familiar with computers and thinking of having one built with dual monitors capability. Which OS should I run XP or 2000? Or does it make a difference? Any suggestions would be appreciated as I have no idea which to have installed at this time.
i believe i read somewhere that WinXP will only allow installation on *1* PC and will not permit further installations on other PCs. Is this true?
I suggest you use W2K unless you absolutely have to have some feature that is unique to XP. W2K has had more time to be shaken out and is more stable. Also, I believe XP still has some backward compatibility features to support old hardware and old software which might also make it less stable than W2K (which has been rock solid so far for me). Re: multiple installations - yeah, I believe XP some MS anti-piracy feature that allows you to only install it on one machine so you don't "buy once, install everywhere"
That's my understanding also, when installed on another PC a message box essentially tells you in 30 days XP will stop functioning unless you call Microsoft, pay additional licenses, etc. I agree with ArchAngel, Win2000 has been as rock-solid as NT (I currently run both on different machines), and 2000 has additional features missing in NT (device mgr, support for USB, etc.). XP may turn out to be just fine, but that restricted licensing thing really bothers me...
Been using XP Pro for 7 (RC2 for 6, retail for 1) months and have had better results with it than I did 2000 Pro. Legally you can only put a puchased OS on one system. XP just makes sure this happens. 2000 you can probably get on both machines. XP Pro must be activated also. My system was almost a year old when I put XP on and have had only one problem with software Lotus screen cam.
Thug life, a computer guy told me the same thing after I installed XP. But as I said I've had good results.
http://www2.idg.com.au/infoage1.nsf/all/735EB5E6A0D63032CA256B11001D517A?OpenDocument fwiw - article from Australia