Vol.
2, Issue 13
February 22, 2000
From
the Mouth of Madness:
loonyboi 2000
by
Jason "loonyboi"
Bergman
his
past weekend, I, like Im sure lots of people (or perhaps
not), made the decision that I was going to upgrade from Windows
9x to Windows 2000. This was, of course, not an easy decision.
There have been numerous reports about the number of bugs and
flaws in the program (upwards of 60,000 according to some reports)
and incompatible hardware problems.
So, before
I actually bought the program, I downloaded a handy little program
Microsoft released that checks your systems hardware and
lets you know how ready for Windows 2000 you are. I was quite
lucky almost all of my hardware was perfectly compatible
with Win 2k. Youll note I said almost. Dont be surprised
if that happens to you as well...so much hardware isnt Windows
2000 compatible, that chances are that if your computer has components
that are over a year old, you've got some incompatible hardware.
In my case, my printer and scanner were singled out as non-compatible.
I wasnt
so bothered by that, because a printer I could just hook up to
a Windows 9x computer on my network and use it as a shared printer.
The scanner, well, again, I could just use on another computer.
At least my video card (a TNT 2 Ultra) and sound card (Diamond
Monster Sound MX300) were ready. What did bother me a bit, was
the news that my version of Norton SystemWorks wasnt going
to run under Win 2k.
Now, Ive
become quite reliant on Norton Utilities lately. Its great
it tells me when my drives are too fragmented, it protects
me from viruses, all around, its just a really useful product.
But sadly, it aint ready for Win 2k. And even worse, Symantec
doesnt offer a version of most of the utilities that will
work. They have an NT version of Norton AntiVirus (possibly the
most important of the various utilities in SystemWorks) but you
cant just download an upgrade to the Windows 9x version
you have to buy an entirely new product. So begrudgingly,
I bought Norton AntiVirus again.
Now that
I had decided to purchase Windows 2000, I had to actually buy
the damn thing. There are a few different versions you can buy:
Windows 2000 Professional (for workstations), Windows 2000 Server
(for well...network servers) and Windows 2000 Advanced Server
(for large network servers). And of course, all of these are offered
in both standalone and upgrade packages. Despite the fact that
the upgrade is about $100 cheaper, I decided to purchase the full
Windows 2000 Professional package. While you get a nice break
on the upgrade version, that means you have to have an OS pre-installed
before you can add Windows 2000. For the most stability, youre
better off reformatting your hard drive and doing a clean install.
And while Im using it as a server for some things on my
network, paying $900 for a five-user license just didnt
make any sense for me.
So, I
got my full version of Windows 2000 Professional. The first thing
I noticed when I opened the box, is how lazy Microsoft has gotten
lately. Instead of a comprehensive instruction manual/reference
guide, you get a dinky little quick start guide and
a slightly larger getting started book. Now, maybe
Ive gotten spoiled by the huge tomes included with Macromedia
and Adobe programs, but I cant tell you how useful those
phonebooks can be. The help system in Windows 2000 is basically
the next evolution of the HTML help in Windows 98, and it works
quite well, but its still not the same as a comprehensive
book. Instead of including one, Microsoft makes you buy an additional
book or twelve.
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