[thelist] Winstability - best version for webdev

[David Nicholls]

Oliver Lineham wrote:
> i'm trying to decide what windows version to reinstall for this machine
> (used primarily for web development) - windows 2000 or nt4.  i have the
> system resources for either.
> 
> my main priority is stability, with interface a close second.
> 
> my experience has been roughly (not necessarily on this box):
>   win 95:  4-5 or more crashes per day
>   win 98:  1-2 crashes per day
>   win NT:  stable for many days
>   2000:  i've not used it.

I use NT4sp6 on a Compaq 450mhzPII with 192meg RAM at one place I work. 
I'm still using a 2+ year old "Chinese-computer-shop" PII 300mHz, 96
megs RAM, at home, which runs Win98 ver 1.

I have control (total) over what drivers are on the Win98 machine and it
is far more stable than the NT machine, and, frankly, faster, due to the
good  motherboard.

I get a BSOD at least once a week on the NT machine, and it requires
rebooting at least once a day, whereas the Win98 machine (on which I
also run Memturbo in background mode to keep the RAM freed up) only
requires rebooting once a week.  They get about the same workout, using
nearly identical programs most of the time.

The moral:  keep your drivers up to date, check regularly for driver
clashes, clean up the Registry periodically, and track everything that
gets installed, and even Win98 will be stable enough for most webdev
purposes.  I have less control over the NT machine and it's
correspondingly much less reliable.

That said, I have heard mainly good things about W2K stability compared
to NT, from people whose opinions I trust, but have no first hand
experience of it.

DN
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David Nicholls
Nicholls Communications
nicholls at world.net
http://www.dcnicholls.com/
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