Wait for Whistler or opt for Windows 2000?

[JellyBaby]

Now that Win 2K is nice and stable after many-a-patch and service pack, MS will soon toss out another buggy OS again -- Whistler. However, it looks pretty good on paper. Basically, I'm looking for one machine, one OS to Do It All -- games, graphics work, development, general use stuff. I could opt for a Win 2K/Win 98SE combo but that's not convenient.

Anybody know what Whistler pricing will be like? Win 2K is pretty cheap now after all the incentives.

 

[owensdj]

JellyBaby, I would guess that Whistler Professional will cost the same as Win 2K Professional does now. It looks like there's finally going to be a version targeted toward home users, maybe called Personal. It will cost a little less than the Professional version.

I think you should go ahead and start using Win 2K Professional now. There's no firm date set for the release of Whistler, do you don't know how long you'll have to wait for it. It looks like it will be released in late 2001, and that's a almost a year from now. If you get Win 2K now, you'll be able to get an upgrade version of Whistler for less than the full price.

 

[goldboyd]

i would go for 2k prof right now. whistler isnt going to be a completely new os, its more of upgraded 2k. thats why ms isnt going to make 2k mcse's recertify to whistler

 

[Enigma]

I would agree, go with Win2K pro, best overall OS yet from MS.

 

[robg1701]

Hmm, id say get Whistler now, me likes

 

[JellyBaby]

Win 2K now might make sense but then I would indeed need to pay for Whistler when it arrives about this time next year. I definitely plan to upgrade to Whistler (the DLL Hell fix is probably worth the price of admission alone). Think I'll wait until I hear about Whistler pricing. It may make more sense to hold out for Whistler and give one $200 donation to Bill instead of $120 now and $120 then (or whatever it might be). Thx.

 

[jacobnero6918]

I would also recommend W2K pro right now since there is also alot of support from hardware makers and alot of the bugs have been worked out. Whistler won't be out for another 9 or 10 months so it will be a long wait.

 

[WoundedWallet]

<< the DLL Hell fix is probably worth... >>

I'm always very skeptical of Bill's promises. I wouldn't make any decisions based on that.

Besides, having to deal with W98 for another year may be more costly then buying both OSes.

How much time and agravation is worth $200 is up to the individual, but I'd gladly pay 50cents a day to stay away from W98.

 

[JellyBaby]

Hmmm...some good points.

When Win 2K first shipped they had some kind of hardware/software compliance utility -- it checked your PC to see if anything is &quot;risky&quot; or &quot;unsupported&quot;. Any idea if that util. was updated and where I might obtain it?

 

[JellyBaby]

why don't i double post while i'm at it?

 

[jacobnero6918]

The utility is kinda useless, I ran it and it told me that everything was not compatible. I bought windows 2000 anyways and got everything to work including my generic modem.

 

[spellbound]

Why even think about Whistler? When it does come out it will initially be buggy and probably have limited support. Many applications or devices either won't initally support it or require upgrades, drivers etc. A year after it's release, after a service pack or two and developers and manufacturers catch up then it may be worthwhile.

I agree Windows 2000 is the best OS MS has introduced and I am very pleased with it. But it's been out a while now. Initially it had a number of bugs and limited driver support. When I upgraded to Win2k, I also had to upgrade a number of apps. Even now as I shop for software and hardware or read forums I notice good driver support still missing in some cases.

Unless you like being an early adoptor and suffering the consequences of such I'd stick with Win2k or 98 for games.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[tbumpus]

Win2k in a dual boot setup with Win98 for those finicky games. Win2k support gets broader all the time. Business-only OS my butt.

 

[JellyBaby]

spellbound,

The word out now is Whistler is far more stable than Win 2K was at the same stage in beta. I don't believe too much is really changing, not enough to create another 50,000 &quot;issues&quot; at any rate. Driver support, I'm guessing and should really find out about this, should be the same as Win 2K. Why would it not be?

Nope, my days of being the early guiny pig are over. I once automatically upgraded everything as soon as an update was released. Haven't done that in years -- I prefer stability now over any benefits I might get diving in early. But Whistler actually looks good for once.

 

[robg1701]

IT IS

(3days 6hours 12minutes 11seconds)

 

[spellbound]

I admit I do not know much about Whistler and was basing my opinion on past experiences.
I hope Whistler is much more stable in it's early release and that updated driver or
app support won't be required. But sometimes I wonder if they don't just design in planned
obsolesence