Windows 2000 Professional review

O.K. let's get this first thing out of the way before I start this review. . . This has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with Windows 2000 Professionals performance, stability or cost. This is simply one of the funniest things I have seen in awhile, and the fact that no one has said anything about it mystifies me. Look at this photo:

Is it just me, or did Microsoft just put a picture of a person DIVING out the window (s)on the front of their newest OS?? Heh, that's funny. . . send a memo to the graphics department at Microsoft "YOUR ALL FIRED". 

**ahem** O.K. that's out of my system. I feel much better.

Perfomance

How is the new "hybrid" version of Windows going to do against it's counterparts?? Will it live up to expectations? We had to crack out the WinTune for this review. Benchmarking an O.S. is significantly more complicated than a simple video card review.

Test System

Dual 600 MHz processors

256 MB PC133

27.3 gig H.D.

TNT2 32meg AGP

When compared against Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows 2000 was noticeably better. Windows 98's concessions to 16-bitness is the operating systems Achilles Heel  -- even on a dual 600MHz machine with 256megs memory. Since Win2000 is built on the same all-32 bit technology that drives NT 4.0, it doesn't have those limitations. In our tests with Word, Excel, DeBabelizer . . . Windows 2000 easily beat out Win98 SE. The tests between Windows 2000 and NT4.0 were decidedly closer, with the big edge going out to Windows 2000.

Performance across the board has improved greatly with the new incarnation of the Windows platform. Is it that much faster than Win 98 SE ?? Flat out. . . YES. No doubt, no question. Is it faster than NT4.0 ?? Yes, but not by much. The compelling arguments for upgrade?? If you have Win 98, the reason is speed and stability. If your on NT4.0, the reason is hardware support. . . and the chance to FINALLY upgrade ;^) We will cover game related benchmarks later in this review.

Hardware

Windows 2000 has HUGE advantages over NT 4.0 on device support. The only Plug and Play devices supported under NT were ISA PnP hardware, and then only with a manually installed driver. FireWire 1394 was on a  device-by-device basis. That was if you could get it to work. USB?? don't get me started. . . no support whatsoever.

 
Windows 2000, which now supports 1394, USB, and almost all Plug-and-Play hardware right out of the box. As with Windows 98, all you need do to install a new device is plug it in and turn on the system.  Window 2000 will automatically detect the device and prompt you to supply a driver if it doesn't already have one for it ( heh, chances are, you will need a driver update from the manufacturer if you have NEWER hardware ).

Now the biggest complaint I hear on the message boards and forums is "Win2k doesn't have any drivers for my *X* " . I am not sure how this can even be viewed as a valid complaint. . . It's a new O.S. and with all new operating systems comes a time for driver transition. etc. It would require Dionne Warwick and all her Psychic Friends to write a driver for an O.S. that hadn't been released yet. So over the next few months. . driver support will improve. Trust me.

With the inclusion of DirectX 7.0 in Windows 2000 game support has escalated greatly. Software-only DVD as well as is supported and enhanced significantly. Although DX7 support does NOT guarantee that all games will play on Win2K, it is a HUGE jump in the right direction, and with a little tweaking on the part of hardware vendors drivers. . . . Windows 2000 will turn out to be a SWEET all around O.S. It seems the days of compromise are starting to finally come to an end.

Software/Program compatibility

Almost all programs written for NT will run just fine under Win2k. Most programs that were written for Win98 will also have little to no problems running under Win2k. Things you should avoid, although they seem like "common sense" issues, people will still try to do them. . . AVOID using operating system specific software like Virus Scan software or Disk Defragmenting software on Win2k. Matter of fact, a Win98 defragmenter will in all likelyhood corrupt your hard drive, and at the very least. . it simply won't work.

Drive compression utilities are out as well, UNLESS there is a software upgrade patch for them available from the vendor. Networking protocols, unless they are written for Win2k, will not work as well. No problem, the drivers most likely needed by your current set-up are available on the Win2k CD-ROM.

Windows 2000 Professional ships with it's own defragment utility installed, and most Software vendors are currently revising their products ( like Norton and McCafee ) to run correctly under Windows 2000.

Advanced Features Exclusive to Win2K

There are a handful of features that are new and exclusive to Windows 2000, I may have missed a few minor ones... but these are the big ones that stand out.

Installer: Win2k has finally gotten a set of standard installation features together that include standard file packaging and extensions that allow you to fix what's wrong with an install instead of a fresh install.

Dynamic Partitions: For you partition freaks ( a term of endearment I assure you ;^) this feature is awesome, making it possible to add space to an existing partition on the fly. . . sweet.

Intellimirror: If your a networking kinda guy like me, or have a LAN ( big or small ) this features is for you. Your application data and settings can now follow you all over any Windows 2000 domain. Nifty aint it. . .

Command Line and Safe Mode: If you are ANY kind of computer user, you know how often BOTH of these features are used. . heh, and in my case. . especially Safe Mode :^)

Active Directory: Active Directory lets you consolidate internet-standards-based directory information into one big DNS-driven database. This includes databases, files, services, host connections and Web pages.

Terminal Services: A feature of Windows 2000 is Terminal Services. Terminal Services makes it possible for remote users to log in through a network client and get access to the same style of graphical desktop they would get if they logged on locally. 

Distributed File System: Also known as DFS ( imagine that ) allows Windows 2000 Servers to take disparate directories in multiple machines and set them up ( present ) as a single directory.

Networking

Win2000 networking is far more flexibly than WinNT or Win98. In WinNT, your network connection was pretty rigidly set up. If you wanted to change network settings or hardware, you had to edit your network settings and reboot. In fact, the whole networking system seems to have been rewritten to take advantage of the various ways that one networks. Think of it as Dial-Up Networking on steroids: everything, including LAN connections, VPN links, and dial-ups, are treated as connections that can be edited, disconnected, switched around, and plugged back in at will (most of the time) without having to reboot! This puts a greater range of hardware and protocols at your disposal.

Hibernation

Windows 2000's hibernation feature is definitely  just for notebook users in my opinion. When you turn on hibernation support, the Hibernate option is added to the shutdown menu. If you select this option, Win2000 saves the exact state of your applications, desktop, and open windows so that when you turn the computer back on, they all appear exactly as you left them.

System Requirements

Here's where Microsoft is a little too optimistic. The minimum system requirements nowadays couldn't reliably run Win98 SE under any load conditions, let alone Windows 2000 and an application or two running in the background. System specs on the box are:

133MHz or higher Pentium Compatible  

64MB of RAM

2GB of hard drive space with 650MB available

CDROM or DVD-ROM

VGA monitor

Hypothermia's recommended system requirements

300MHz Pentium II or higher ( dual CPU's preferred )

128MB PC-100 SDRAM  ( 256 preferred )

10GB hard drive ( simply because the smallest commonly avail. hard drive )

40X CDROM  ( same reason as stated above )

As a rule, servers are more demanding machines than desktop computers -- so by extension, Win2000 Server is more demanding than the Pro client version. The first and more obvious reason for this is processing power. Servers that do a lot of transactional processing, or Web servers that process ASP pages, use a Pentium II or better. In all other cases, nothing less than a Pentium 233 is acceptable.

In memory terms, nothing less than 128MB will do on a server, and that's assuming it's dedicated to one service, such as Web or SQL. Add another 128MB for each additional service a particular Win2000 server performs. For instance, a server that handles Web,

Microsoft recommends a 2GB drive with 1GB free for Win2000 Server. I believe a 10GB drive with at least 2GB free is a more realistic requirement. As another rule of thumb, try finding a 4.3 or 6.5GB hard drive anywhere. . if you do find one, it will easily cost the same as a comparable 10GB ATA66 hard drive.  

Think about this too, You can't back out of a Win9X or NT 4.0 upgrade. And if you decide to convert your drive to the Win2000's NTFS file system during installation, there's no way to change your mind on that either, and Windows 9x doesn't recognize NTFS. Win2000's upgrade setup screens give you no real warning about that NTFS pitfall either. Of course, you can reformat your drive to lose NTFS. If you're clean installing, and you're sure your environment will be Windows 2000 only, NTFS is the way to go. But if not, go with FAT32 or FAT.

Windows 2000 does recognize FAT32, as do all versions of Win 98 and Win 95b and above. That makes FAT32 the best file system for Win9x and Win2000 multiboot environments. (If you're also keeping an installation of NT 4.0 on your system, FAT is your best bet, since NT 4.0 doesn't recognize FAT32.) Confused yet?? heh.

If any of you were/are beta testers. . . make sure it's RC2 or higher or you wont be able to upgrade. Another instance where a clean install would be recommended.

So who needs Windows 2000 ???

Honestly, it's more of a question WHEN you'll need/want it. I look at things in a more literal sense than other people, but where that pays off is during upgrades. I KNOW I will need a product inevitably, So I prioritize my purchases by order of importance.

Laptop users: If you already have a business/work laptop running NT4.0 and the current hardware to push NT, then an upgrade for you is the smartest thing you can do. The benefits over NT 4.0 easily justify the upgrade.

If you are the casual laptop owner, and your system specs are 233MHz and 64MB RAM or less. . . I would seriously advise against it UNLESS you are planning on at least upping your RAM to 96MB to accompany the upgrade.

Business Users: If you are currently running NT 4.0 or Win95-98 there really isn't much debate here. What you gain in ease of use and the features that were lacking before, are all there now. . . it's time to upgrade.

Power Users: Win 2000 is fun, it's stable, and with increasing support for games and applications growing by the day, this is the Windows of the Windows Family. Dual processor  support, game support ( and growing ) and all the feel of Win95/98 with an added layer of smoothness.

My system results

Many of you may know already, I am of the overclocking persuasion :^) and how does this OS fair for me?? I did the quick and dirty "upgrade" . . . . I immediately took the "new install" out for a spin. The system has dual 433MHz Celerons running at 600MHz, I run it hard and I run it constantly.

All previously installed software ran fine on the new O.S. except for a few programs needing to be re-installed. During the "Compatibility Check" all non-compatible software was identified and alternatives and/or options were given. Heh, pretty cool.

 
Quake 3 Benchmarks

For comparison sakes only ( heh, yeah right ) We took Q3 out for a few spins as well. . . . here's what happened

                              Win98SE                  Win2000                   Win2000 (SMP)

640 x 480 x 16           86.3fps                   91.7fps                        132.5fps

These tests were taken at 640x480x16, with all graphical options set to low or off (cg_simpleitems 1, cg_gibs 0, cg_draw3dicons 0, etc.). Dual 600MHz processors on an ABIT BP6, 256MB PC-133, nVidia TNT2 32meg.

The added frames per second just from Win98 to Win2k can easily be attributed to the fact that one processor is dedicated to the O.S. and one to running Applications. But the real boost is in SMP ( dual processors ) over 40 Frames per Second boost. . . . very nice indeed.

Closing Comments

So there you have it. . . Hypothermia's view on Windows 2000. This is strictly the view from a "Windowed" world. Yes there are other O.S.'s out there. . . and we here at Hypothermia are certainly exploring those alternative O.S.'s , but for now. . . this Review is aimed squarely at Windows 9x and NT users. I hope that all will take a little info away from here today, and apply it towards their next upgrade.

Many people will wonder how I can be "so sure" about upgrade advice. I look at it like this. How many products are being developed RIGHT now for Win95??? **cough**none**cough** Most of the new products, applications and drivers are now being developed for the current crop of Windows ( the 2000 variety ). Often with the release of a new O.S. , the current ones are left behind as far as development and applications go. Everyone is now focused on making sure their product runs on Win XXXX.

Every new O.S. goes through the "DRIVERS BLUES" because everyone is scrambling to make sure they have a set of drivers. There will be a flood of BETA drivers out there, but within the following 6 mo. driver issues will be a thing of the past.