Rating: 
Summary: Windows 2000 > Excellent Business OS
Review: To the user who said, "This OS was released because NT was old and failing..." does not understand Windows or software development, and would rather plug Linux. NT, Win 2000's predecessor, is a solid and reliable OS geared toward the corporate/business user. Win 2000 builds upon NT's strengths while adding user interface enhancements and additional stability. For those who install a lot of software, you'll appreciate Win 2000's built-in protection against rogue apps (or poorly designed apps) that attempt to write over crucial system files. There are a ton of other enhancements in this release, geared toward the mobile user and professional. It's not the OS to run the largest selection of games however, and home users would be better off with Win98 or WinME. All in all, it's an amazing product.
Rating: 
Summary: Boots fast, is rock-solid compared to other Microsoft OS
Review: I couldn't wait to ditch the Windows ME that came on my new PC. I had plenty of RAM (you need at least 64 MB and in my opinion that is cutting it a bit fine.) The installation went smoothly, most of my applications work fine. This is a new PC, just shy of 1GB cpu speed and with components that have drivers for Windows 2000. Warning: upgrading an older computer? Make sure the drivers for sound cards and peripherals are available for Windows 2000. You can do this by checking the website support section for the various devices you own. Download any new drivers you might need. If your PC is too old, you may not find any drivers for certain components. This happened to one of our PC's at home. If you are setting up a home network, Windows 2000 is MUCH better than Win98 and WinME for doing this. And it boots a lot faster than WinME and WAY way faster than NT. I did have the occasional system hang but nothing like with WinME or Win98. In short, this is the operating system of choice for PC's if your PC can handle it.
Rating:
Summary: Best desktop OS there is
Review: What can I say? Looking through the other reviews for Win2000 Upgrade, there seems to be a lot of focus on price or comparison to Linux products. I usually find that the people claiming Linux to be "perfect" and so forth are either not running their own business, and therefore have no concept of total cost of ownership, or have very specific needs and highly trained staff. As a developer, I have found Windows 2000 a very valuable asset. I don't use MS development tools - I use Borland ones, but they work flawlessly with Win2000. I can plug in my camera or palm pilot or whatever I need to AND develop at the same time, and very rarely turn my machine off... and the interface for doing the multitasking and plug and play is very simple. There's no reaching for manuals or looking up manual files for cryptic commands. For users of NT 4.0 Workstation - buy it. don't waste any time! For users of Linux - use a friends version of it, keep an open mind, try to learn a few things about it. You won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Tough to Navigate, Yet Stable
Review: Funny, Stable and Microsoft together. Until I started using Windows 2000 Adv. Server, I didn't think that there was such a thing. Well, the next NT product is. Buyers beware though, it is very tough to find drivers for a lot of todays hardware. Also, this isn't a product for most consumers. It is a lot more difficult to navigate too. Once you get the hang of it though, it is pretty awesome. I particularly had trouble with getting my computer to view things on my lan and getting on the internet. But after a little tweaking and a lot of crossing my fingers, it is working quite flawlessly. Some changes that I appreciated are a hardware wizard and in the Add/Remove Programs it tells you how often a program is used. On the other hand, I didn't like the way that the Network and Network Properties pages are setup. Also, Dual Booting is quite easy to do now and the installation is pretty smooth also. Novices beware, but advanced user will enjoy it after they get all their hardware/drivers working.
Rating:
Summary: Best Microsoft Operating System YET
Review: I'm new to networking, but have had wonderful success with this operating system on my home network. Rather intuitive for the most part. I have a mixed environment of clients: NT 4.0, and Win2k Professional. Getting everything running was easy. The Server wizards help tremendously - - especially for newbies like myself. I'm still learning quite a bit almost daily. I have SQL 7.0 running, my own web server (IIS), and Microsoft Exchange 5.5. Very stable operating system. Great security. Great interface. I'm especially fond of the support for: USB devices, plug-and-play, and Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (allows the computer to hibernate/power down devices). Another great feature is the sharing of IRQ's. That made me nervous at first, since normally devices didn't IRQ's (interrupt addresses) well in earlier versions of Windows. One piece of advice: don't install anything that isn't certified or isn't created to run on Windows 2000 Server. Although the operating system is tolerant, an errant piece of hardware or software could create more headaches than you may be ready for. IIS (Internet Information Services) is included - which allows you to host your own web server. ASP (Active Server Pages) - a feature of IIS allows you to program interactivity in your web pages - - bringing them to life.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Powerful, but not suitable for lower configs.
Review: Microsoft's Windows 2000 Pro OS, is a rock-solid stable OS with powerful features and powerful performance. These are all advantages for users with adequate systems. Computers released these day easily exceed the requirements for running Windows 2000 properly. Windows 2000 may boot slower than ME, but it crashes much less, and therefore rebooting is kept at a minimal. Windows 2000 also supports Hibernation, which loads all the RAM into the Hard Disk, and shuts down, and you can resume the "session" after you turn the computer on next time, a very nifty feature. Games is no longer a problem with Win2000, with support for Direct3D something that Windows NT lacked. However, there are downsides to Windows 2000, which is there are quite hefty system requirements. Even though, Microsoft recommends 64Mb RAM, I would recommended 128Mb as a raw minimum, Why? Windows 2000 is the most memory consuming OS by Microsoft, and 64Mb RAM doesn't cut it, unless you only run very little applications at once, more than that, your system would be running to virtual memory. Win2000, loves RAM, I currently have a system with 384Mb RAM, and Win2000 lives happily on it. RAM in fact, is far more important than CPU speed on non-number crunching applications. The only reason why I didn't give it 5 stars was because of memory consumption and hefty system requirements. Otherwise, if you exceed these requirements by a far mile, then Windows 2000 is the best OS I can recommend.
Rating:
Summary: More stable than Windows 98
Review: Yes. It has not crashed on me yet. :) I have been using Windows 2000 for more than a month now. Whenever it gets busy with a process it cannot resolve, it does not crash your computer... it closes that particular application/process and returns back without closing other applications or even trying to close it. I am glad the way it is working compared to Win98 that will give you blue screens
Installation: I installed this O/s from scratch and to be honest the installation is so much simpler than Windows NT 4.0. You cannot ask for anything better. The good part of the installation was that it recognized my modem and has built-in drivers for most of the monitors. And if you upgrade it from Win95 or Win98, the upgrade just goes very smooth and preserves all existing data. It is awesome.
Requirements: You should not install this system if you have less than 128 MB Ram. It will not work properly with 64 MB. With an idle system and no applications running it uses 77-78 MB, I would recommend processor speed to a minimum of 400-450. I have a 233Mghz with 128 Ram and it runs reasonably ok. But it you like Speed and windows 2000 please go for better hardware.
Other small little thing I like about the O/s is the fade effect it produces when you click on any button or pull up a menu. I really like that.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Even Bother With Microsoft Windows Me!
Review: I'm not trying to knock Microsoft Windows Me!, but Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional is THE BEST operating system on the market. I was running Microsoft Windows 95, then Microsoft Windows 98 then finally Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition. I was going to upgrade to Microsoft Windows Me!, but when I heard it was still using the Microsoft Windows 98 engine, I said enough! I upgraded to Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional and it was the best move I made. It has all the plug and play of Microsoft Windows 98 but it's built on NT technology. I couldn't upgrade to Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 because I have a scanner plugged into a USB port but Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional took care of all of that. I have a four year old Gateway Pentium Pro 200 machine and it's now running faster than my work laptop which is Pentium III 366MHz. Did I mention that my laptop is running Microsoft Windows 95? I will be upgrading that one very soon too! One word of caution though, MAKE SURE you check out the hardware and software compatibility list, especially the hardware one. My sound card, an Ensoniq Vivo, was not supported but I was able to use the legacy NT 4.0 driver. It took a while before I got is working, but it was worth it. Even if you are a home user, don't bother with the other ones. I used to have to reboot my machine two or three times a night in a four hour span. So far, I haven't frozen yet in over a week. The only time I have to reboot is when I occassionally add new features or software. My vote is, way to go Microsoft! What took so long to put the plug and play and NT technology together? Thanks for your time all.
Rating:
Summary: Windows 2000 > Excellent Business OS
Review: To the user who said, "This OS was released because NT was old and failing..." does not understand Windows or software development, and would rather plug Linux. NT, Win 2000's predecessor, is a solid and reliable OS geared toward the corporate/business user. Win 2000 builds upon NT's strengths while adding user interface enhancements and additional stability. For those who install a lot of software, you'll appreciate Win 2000's built-in protection against rogue apps (or poorly designed apps) that attempt to write over crucial system files. There are a ton of other enhancements in this release, geared toward the mobile user and professional. It's not the OS to run the largest selection of games however, and home users would be better off with Win98 or WinME. All in all, it's an amazing product.
Rating:
Summary: Best Operating System Yet
Review: Microsoft got it right this time with Windows 2000! If I could give it more than 5 stars I certainly would have done so. It's an eight on a scale of one to five. I have been using W2K for over a month now, and the performance and stability are great. "Plug and play" works even better than the Win9x operating systems, and setup is a breeze if you have a relatively new PC (2-3 years old or newer). Make sure you have a decent amount of memory (I recommend no less than 96 mb, 128 mb or more is even better). Certain drivers have been hard to come by (in particular 3D graphics accelerator card drivers) but that should change now that W2K is offically released. However, most of the drivers you need to get your PC going are included and automatically installed for you during setup. If you are using Win9x or Windows NT, get out there and buy W2K. I don't think you'll be disappointed. As far as cost goes, it's not cheap, but well worth the price of admission. Most of your applications will work just fine, so you don't need to buy all new applications. The quality of the product is comparable with its relatively high price. My experience with "free" operating systems is that you get what you pay for with them. Unless you want to spend all your time compiling your operating system and tweaking it endlessly, just buy W2K and be done with it. Your time is worth more than the upgrade cost, isn't it?
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