I would agree basically with Wayne with clarification on the business verses
home. I would say more specifically, Win98, as an operating system is more
user friendly (less technical expertise required) , e.g. as Wayne mentioned,
PnP, drivers, configuring, etc. One reason 98 is less stable is that it
tried to be a be-all for everyone, i.e. compatible with legacy hardware and
programs in DOS and Win3x and especially games. Whereas, NT is more
"business" oriented and does not do the legacy and games and takes more
technical expertise to configure. In addition, less hardware have drivers
for NT as opposed to almost all hardware has drivers for Win9x. However, if
you want a more stable "home" system, use hardware that have NT drivers and
know how to configure it and do not care about legacy products, NT is the
answer.
However, since you said you did not have much PC expertise, I would suggest
Win9x and make sure you buy a high quality system which will increase the
stability of Win9x. My Win9x system rarely crashes using "business" type
programs, e.g. MS Office, MS Phone, Scanner software, etc. However, I have
seen low end systems using the same software crash a few times a day to a
few times per hour. In my testing of components, just changing motherboards
brands have done this. So it is not always the O/S and/or applications that
makes the system less stable.
Generally speaking using a 32 bit program, e.g. MS Word97 in either
operating system would look and act the same. It is not the applications
that are different but the operating system only. Sorry, if I state the
obvious but some may not realize this since MS Word in DOS, Vs. Win3x Vs.
Win9x look and act differently.
Hopefully, Win2000 (W2K) being NT based with added Win9x user friendly
ability will be The O/S. Last estimate I saw was Feb 17, 2000 for public
introduction which means to me, the debugged "Second Edition" (SE) <G> will
be out around June 2000. I hope to make it to June before my system requires
another clean install :-)
Daniel Wysocki
Twin*.*Star Computers
770-498-2582 / 800-816-0663
[log in to unmask]
Fast - Reliable - Wallet Friendly
-----Original Message-----
From: Wayne Harris <[log in to unmask]>
> Since I am taking Windows NT Certification courses, I think I can take
a
>stab at this. Simply put, NT is for businesses and 98 is for homes.
Security
>of your information is a priority for NT, it is not so good with 98. NT is
>not Plug and Play, although there are many pieces of hardware that will
work
>in NT. 98 is Plug and Play, which makes installing new hardware easier. At
>least that's what they tried to do. NT is much more stable than 98. It was
>built from the ground up totally different than 98, even though the GUI
>(Graphical Unit Interface) is made to look the same for ease of switching
>from one to another.
>
>
> Wayne
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