ok, lately ive been thinking about getting a new computer and install Windows XP into it. on my old computer i have win 98 but its getting on my nerves coz since its an older version it has less space than the newer ones and more space is what i need rite now. well, one of my friends told me that her dad said they wouldnt get win xp (they have win 2000) bcuz they got it out too early and didnt finish running all the tests n so ppl r having problems w/ it. but another one of my friends already has Windows XP and she says it has alot of space and werks great n she doesn't have any problems w/ it and ive been on her comp b4 n it did werk pretty amazing. well, my other friend still says it ^^^^s, so now theyre confusing me. i wanna know if win xp is better n as cool as ppl say it is and if there r any problems - what r they? also, how much space does it have like alot or is win 2000 better than xp? thanx!

the operating system doesn't determine how much "space" (I'm assuming you mean hard drive space?) you have. that is only determined by your hard drive capacity.

Windows XP will take up more space that any older version of Windows- I think it requires about 2 GB, whereas Windows 95 for example takes up well under 1 GB (I have it on an old computer which has a 1 GB hard drive). so in a way, it does determine how much space you have- because different versions take up different amounts of it, although newer versions leave you with less free space.

I know that Windows XP has some security issues, and some of them have been fixed with various patches. personally I think it's a stupid system- for example, if you upgrade more than 3 of the 10 parts that it recognizes when you install it at once, you have to call Microsoft to reactivate it- to help prevent piracy, because it assumes that if more than 3 of those parts are different, it must be a different computer that you're trying to install it on. and it drains resources. the minimum system requirements are a 450 MHz processor, 2 GB of hard drive space, and 128 MB of RAM. however, I've heard that it's pretty bad on anything with a processor less than 600 MHz or so, with 256 MB of RAM. so you'd better make sure the computer can handle it.

how will i know if it'll be able to handle it? i mean, what kind of computer's good - hp or what? im confused! :confused:

in terms of how well a computer can run software, manufacturer doesn't matter too much. the only main differences you'll find between manufacturers is quality of parts and quality/duration of support.

you just have to check the specifications of the computer. each part will be measured somehow.
your processor will be xxxx MHz or x.xx GHz (1000 MHz = 1 GHz)
the amount of RAM will be xxx MB
hard drive space will be xx or xxx GB
etc.

for Windows XP to run well, those numbers should exceed 600 MHz, 256 MB of RAM, and 2 GB of hard drive space. but for something like hard drive space, you want to have much more than the OS requires, because that's where all your document and programs and things are stored. if you're getting a brand new computer, you should probably get something that has at least a 1.0 GHz processor (probably faster- and I've heard many times that the AMD Athlon is better than the Intel Pentium 4), 256 MB of RAM, and probably a 40 GB hard drive.

that should be able to handle Windows XP pretty well.