I have considered upgrading my OS too, but was convinced to stick with
Windows 98SE, partly because it is still DOS compatible and almost all
programs that you either buy or take free will work with it.  It's as
fast as any, but it's compatible with all.

So you could say that newer isn't better, as far as I am concerned.
Speed?  By the time you get this fast, I really don't see how faster
screens and windows would help anyway.  I don't know a lot about
computers, but as a user, it seems to me that there are other things
about an operating system that's far more important than that.

When I was considering XP and Millenium, and all the other typical
Microsoft hype out there (most of which is "frill added to nonsense"
and everything else is left up to their advertising department), I
began to realize that their so-called new "OS" was possibly just the
old shell game with a twist.  It seems to operate about like programs
which allow compatibility between Macs and Windows, but it takes up
huge amounts of memory and resources and will no longer give you access
to DOS.  To me (a dumb user), it's exactly like taking a Model T Ford,
chopping it, and fitting it with a huge body that looks like a tank.
And you have to be a real tank commander to do anything more than make
it go straight down the road.

If Bill Gates is half as smart as he claims, then I say, like the song
says, "Show me."  Meanwhile, I will keep using his "hammered-to-fit,"
cut-and try, second-edition de-bugged Windows 98SE, and then if I have
to, I can still run a third-party  anti-crash program that Microsoft
should have figured out a long time ago, themselves, if they had been
all that smart.

A lot of subscribers to MMD are interested in stuff like special
programs that will convert scanner files to MIDI files.  Things like
that.  But if they are mesmerized by the latest Windows nonsense,
(which I am definitely not) they likely will not be able to run these
programs, or will have incredible problems that defy a solution.  Trust
me on this.  Microsoft sells hugely priced conversion compatibility
programs to software developers to be compatible with their latest OS.
And as Microsoft takes their Model T/Tank, and adds a "C-144" shell
over that, and then chops that and adds a "Destroyer" shell over that,
and so forth, your computer is going to have to run at gigaHerz speeds
just to have enough power to make their frilly nonsense go straight
down the track again.

I think if buyers just keep in mind that what many software developers
lack in expertise, they make up for with their hype and use their
customers as their quality control department.  I suspect Microsoft is
not a whit behind in that aspect.  Let their product speak for itself,
but in my view, they are like the gardener who doesn't like to weed.
He just keeps tilling new rows and whatever he gets comes from the
edges.  If he ever went back to where he started, he'd be up to his
armpits in thistles.  Now if that was "Aunt Emma" you'd call her nuts.
But if that's Bill Gates, you'd first illuminate the garden with
multi-colored lights and march a band past, and then you'd call him
"Extraordinarily Smart."

Craig Brougher