>Here is an analysis by an XP user, with both pro and cons, and a complete comparison between the home edition and the pro edition. He recommends the home addition unless.....(teaser! :-).....
>http://members.shaw.ca/amico/page2.htm
>
Informative. He seems pretty well sold on XP.
>
>My biggest complaints are the spyware, registration wizard and the volume of security holes which require constant attention. IF you don't mind the security (http://www.guninski.com/vv2xp.html for example), the spyware (http://f**kmicrosoft.com/content/ms-hidden-files.shtml) or the registration wizard, which converts your status to one of 'pirate' if you change more than 3 out of 10 registration parameters, then XP is OK.
>
Agreed. I figure if I go XP I'll just have to live with the registration muckety-muck. I'm personally agin it but there's not much to be done on this and I figure it is the harbinger of things to come.

Only concern here is if I choose for this machine to not have Internet access, how does the registration software respond? I'm womdering if it will just cut you off if it can't contact mama-MS?

>If you think XP is more stable than W2K then perhaps this website will help you decide:
>http://www.bugtoaster.com/dw15/Reports/OperatingSystems.asp
>
I actually figured W2K was ultimately more stable, perhaps this will change by SP2 ( or SP8??? :-) )

>Here is a CNET article with some insights:
>http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/hardware/desktops/0,39001729,38006913,00.htm
>
>I also subscribe to Woody's Office Watch (WOW, a pro MS news source) and here are some of his comments in item #2
>http://www.woodyswatch.com/office/archtemplate.asp?v6-n17
>which also contains links to a five part article on MS registration wizards, mainly XP Office and XP...
>JLK

Thanks for taking the time to respond. This is all good information. (sigh) If I was just going to use the home machine for developing, etc. I'd probably go for W2K. But I do like to play games with my son and I figure XP will have better support here over the long haul. We'll see ...

Bill