Windows: How
Many Flavors?
You get
back from the store with glazed eyes and
no packages. "But honey," your better
half says, "you only had to bring back
ice cream. One quart, anything good.
What happened?"
"Just one?!?"
you quaver. "Anything good?!?
Let's see...there was Chocolate Fudge
Brownie, which at least sounded tasty.
There was Phish Food, which I don't
understand, and Cherry Garcia, which I
figure has cherries in it at least, and
Mocha Fudge Ripple, which kinda looked
like the other fudge one. They had Wavy
Gravy...that one worries me. Then they
had Chunky Monkey. I swear. When I saw
that one, I just had to leave the store.
Next time you pick out the ice
cream."
Buying a new PC means that you have
to decide which flavor of Windows you
prefer, and that isn't much easier than
sorting through the variety of
confections in the ice cream aisle. In
fact, picking out the variety of Windows
that works best for you isn't unlike
sorting through 32 flavors – you make
some early choices that narrow things
down, and then winnow through what's
left.
Basically, Windows comes in two
flavors: 9x and NT. If you're buying a
new Windows-driven PC, here's where you
make your first choice. Since this
column is for the lay user and not the
hotshot who knows more than I do, I'm
going to make it simple. Forget NT. Go
directly to the 9x line. Why? Several
reasons, really, but the easiest
explanation is that the NT line was
designed for business and corporate use,
and much less for home and personal use.
NT also doesn't support a lot of older
programs and hardware, which means that
your cherished inkjet printer or vintage
copy of "Duke Nukem" won't operate under
the NT systems. Windows 2000,
Microsoft's recent "flavor of the
month," is an NT member, so scratch that
off your list. (If you know enough to
know why NT/2000 might suit your
particular needs, then don't waste time
arguing with me, just go buy one
already. The rest of you, follow me.)
Now we've narrowed our choices
strictly to the 9x side of the aisle.
What do we choose from? Well, we have
three basic flavors, with some variants.
The oldest item on the aisle is Windows
95. It's been around a good while, and
lots of people like it, so it's a good
basic choice. But, its expiration date
is about to come up. Put it back on the
shelf and look at its spiffier cousin,
Windows 98. Win 98 is pretty fresh on
the market, but already it's been around
long enough to spawn a second edition
(Win 98 SE – think sprinkles). This is
probably your best choice. It sports
over 3000 bug fixes over Win 95, lots of
niceties and upgrades, and has been on
the market long enough to have some of
the kinks worked out of it (hence the
second edition).
But wait, there's a new flavor in the
dairy case, with a big flashy neon sign:
Windows Millennium. Yum! A new operating
system for the new millennium...how
tasty is that? Well, hang on a second.
Win ME, as it's called, is very new to
the market, so new that some bugs and
glitches come along with it. If you look
really closely, it's just Win 98 with a
new, NT-like interface and some flashy
bells and whistles that most of us
aren't going to use anyway. (Think ice
cream with odd bits of fruit that you
can't identify and aren't sure you want
to try.) Worse, there's no backup
program, and worst of all, it's more
prone to crash than Win 98.
Basically, your choice boils down to
a simple one: if you're buying now, go
with Windows 98 SE. If you'd rather wait
on a second, debugged edition of
Millennium, then do so, but don't buy
the version that currently occupies
shelf space. If you're really into
waiting, then give Microsoft a year or
so, and see if they release "XP," the
"merged" version of Windows that will
combine both NT and 9x into one tasty
operating system (formerly named
Whistler; think Neapolitan), or see how
the 64-bit version of Windows is
progressing. To keep up with Windows
developments, go to my
Windows 98/XP and
Windows 64 pages.
Again, this advice isn't for
everybody. After all, some people really
like Chunky Monkey.
