I have used XP Professional for a few months now.

Let me be the first to say, (I think) that I am really happy with XP. If you are going to install it, make sure you get the full install, pay the xtra hundred bucks or so. NEVER get an upgrade model.

One previous user was right. XP is basically the merging of the two WINDOWS software lines. One line was the NT and 2000 software, (business) while 95/98/ME was the other line. (personal) The basic difference was that the 95/98/ME Windows were written in old MSDOS, while NT was built from the ground up as its own specifically programmed operating system.

So in the past, most software written for the 95 line, would not work in NT. XP is the continuation of the NT line, with the ability (somewhat) of running 95/98/ME programs. Hope you're still following.

Talking amongst programmers, XP is not a real buggy system. The only problem when I recieved the system, was that no driver files had been issued for XP yet. (My copy came a couple months before the release date. Let's leave it at that, shall we?) The NT format has been around for years. XP is really stable compared to 95/98/ME. No more blue screens of death. If something crashes in windows, you can recover. (I have had only one reboot for hanging, in over 4 months of usage, and my computer is always on.)

One of the big improvements I like, is downloading. With a DSL connection on 98SE, I could only max out dloading at about 70 Kbps. (17 Kbps is about a meg a minute) With XP, I can now max dload at 120-140 Kbps. A major improvement.

User interface is a little different, that takes time getting used to. Startup is very quick compared to 98, at least twice as quick to get up and running.

I will recommend XP to anyone. I have had no major problems installing or running it. It doesn't crash like 98, and downloading is faster.

Now its weak side. The compatability wizard, which allows users to tell programs to run in 98 mode, for instance, has not always worked for me. Its hit and miss if certain programs will work. Most business software will work, cause most have been written with NT in mind. Some games will work, some wont. (Madden 2001 for me)

XP is a system hog. 2 Gig just to install. (remember when 40 megs was a big hard drive? Thats where programmers went wrong. When you give them almost unlimited drive space, they want to use it all. Brevity, Damnit!)

IF you have less than 128 Meg of RAM, it's pointless to install XP. It will run, but its going to be sluggish. Same for processor speed. Dont expect to do well if your running under a p3 400 Mhz processor.

So finally, I hope to have given you an idea. I personally recommend it, the full version and not the upgrade. If you can afford to spend the big bucks, get XP Professional.

One final note on that registration thing, I have heard, and would explain my system, that XP Professional might not have to be registered. Only XP Home. Don't quote me, but I have never had to register my copy of Pro. Just something to think about.

Cheers