i dont use windows xp because it takes so much work to get it to the same point 2003 is out of the box, even with using nlite on xp u still have to do alot of tweaking after install to get xp as lean and mean as 2003 is OOTB.
and i didnt know i was using my toung thought it was my fingers doing the talking....(ok i wont go there.....har har)
as a tech i see ALOT more problems with xp then i even saw with 2k dispite the fact that most of the people i setup with windows back in the day would choose 2k over xp because it was less buggy and 2k pro was cheaper then xp pro, the only os i have seen as many seemingly random problems with is..*drum roll* you guessed it windows ME, and at times ME was even more easly delt with, at least it never had a service pack of hot fix that caused the whole os to go haywire.
some bad effects i have seen critical hotfixes cause.
drivers failing ti inilize for no reasion, normaly takes 15min to 2hrs to fix (15min if ur able to fully remove the hotfix/know what hot fix caused it)
sound support dissapearing dispite drivers being installed.
EXTREAM system slowdowns on p4 systems(in not a p4 lover but when a critical hotfix cuts the system perf down to under 1/2 what it was....well u guessed it, i get angery)
optical drives dissapearing for no reasion requiering you to reassign them drive letters or del the ide controler and restart to get them back.
optical drived randomly reverting to pio mode and thus causing all sorts of system perf issues.(very rare with 2k, normaly caused by 3rd party software like starfarce, with xp, well i have seen it randomly happen and happen due to hotfixes)
random restarts/bsod's after critical hotfix installs.
windows nolonger connecting to tcp/ip networks due to a critical security hotfix.
i could go on and on, but these are the worse ones.
probems caused by sp2.
software failing to work properly or at all under sp2, forcing the software maker to hack around the problems and fix something because ms didnt update to fix it in a timely manner.
wireless network cards failing to work AT ALL till drivers where updated, possably causing system crashes/restarts/bsod's
firewall issues causing connections to not work properly or at all with it enabled(hell it wont even let you get a dhcp addy off a router if its enabled......
again i could go on and on, but these are the most common ones i have found.
2000 and 2003 on the other hand NEVER had these kinds of issues, no critical updates screwing up the os, all the 2k and 2k3 service packs have ADDED compatability and support.
and even perf at times.
xp was RUSHED OUT, hence the problems its got, vista was RUSHED out,hence the loss of fetures such as WinFS, ms infact dumped fetures to rush DRM into the os and get the os out as quick as possable.
xp is the first windows os to come out BEFOR its server counterpart, xp was put out October 25, 2001 server 2003 was put out March 28, 2003 so its a year and 7 months after xp was put out, theres a reasion for that, xp CANT work in server mode without crashing, it was rushed out beacuse ms needed an NT based desktop os and had marketed 2k as buisness only(marketing that was a bad choice to be sure)
vista was rushed out to make hollywood happy that ms was pushing their agenda(hard core DRM for videos/audio) and because the current ceo of ms is a tool.
hence server 2008 will come out a year after vista(or longer) when its acctualy ready for prime.
in the past windows came out server+workstation at the same time.
windows 3.0 had windows nt3 server
windows nt 3.x had equivlant nt server versions.
nt4 had ws and server out at the same time.
2k same deal, xp they droped the ball, and vista.....well its just a nightmare currently for software support not to mention good drivers........talk about cluster fuck.........
my point is that i dont use xp because its crap, but i do use its older more mature and mentaly stable brother 2k and its younger yet more mature, stable, and robust brother 2003.
