Operating Systems

[Leland Smith]

I use photoshop 7 and I am using Windows 98SE operating system. Will I improve the speed of working with large files by switching to Windows 2000 professional? Has anyone made this switch? Thanks for your input. Leland

[Ralph Barker]

I switched from Windoze 98SE to Windoze XP, so I can't speak with authority to any added efficiency with Windows 2000, Leland. But, I doubt that you would see much performance gain. More memory and/or a higher-speed CPU is probably a better option for added performance.

[j.e.simmons]

As I understand it, 98SE will only "see" 512m RAM. The other OS will "see" larger amounts of RAM, so if you upgrade and add the additional RAM, you should get faster speed. I don't think the OS change itself will make a significant improvement. j

[Steve Hamley]

Leland,

No, not if that's your only change. Win 98 is a faster operating system than 2000/XP, at least before it corrupts itself.

Ralph's right about the performance boost, BUT you likely can't use over 1 GB RAM with Win 98 (bad, bad, memory management), so you're "RAM limited". I had a Win 98 box that wouldn't boot with 1 GB RAM but would with 750 MB.

Thanks!

Steve

[Ken Lee]

With Win2000, you will get far fewer crashes. On the other hand, it requires more memory just to run. WIndows 98 was a consumer OS, designed to support older protocols for people running older video games. Windows 2000 is superior OS, but it does require more memory.

It handles multithreading and tasks like printing while scanning far more efficiently, and allows you to sign in with multiple identities on the same machine. XP is almost the same thing, with some bells and whistles added on, but it is slower, and requires even more memory just to run the OS.

If you are going to run Photoshop, then no matter what machine or operating system, the more memory, the better. That's just because of the nature of the job at hand. I have 2 GB of RAM, and it's still not too much memory, for manipulating 4x5 RGB files.

[Eric Rose]

I use Windo$e 98se but have close to a gig of ram. Win98 sees it all. RAM makes a bigger difference than anything else. Win2000 is a much "nicer" OS as it doesn't crash as much as Win98, but some of your devices such as scanners and printers may no longer work with Win2000.

[Eric_3793]

MACMACMACMACMACMACMACMACMACMACMACMACMACMACMACMACMACMACMACMACMACMACMACMACMAC OSXOSXOSXOSXOSXOSXOSXOSXOSXOSXOSXOSXOSXOSXOSXOSXOSXOSXOSXOSXOSXOSXOSXOSXOSXOSXOSXOSXOSXOSX Just do it!

[Bob._3483]

Good grief - is it still 1985?...

[Jonathan Lee]

In all seriousness, Eric is right, even if Mac-heads like Eric and me do go overboard every now and then.

Mac G5, OSX is the way to go. I can unsharp mask a 300Mb PS file, be printing out another PS image on my Epson 2200, scanning another in Vuescan, printing out a large PDF file on my laser printer, and downloading something with no crashes...ever!

[jantman]

I had Windows 98SE, switched to XP when it came out, kept it for TWO DAYS, and switched to Win 2000 Pro. The OS is great, and MUCH more stable than any previous windows i've used. I actually have uptime in weeks as opposed to days or hours.

Having said that, I don't do any digital photo work. If I did, I'd get a Mac, hands-down, no questions asked. And the new G5, being 64-bit, is really tempting.

Now, otoh, my favorite OS is Linux, though the graphics tools aren't on par with Mac.