As time progresses over the next 18 months to two years, your system will
become more and more incapable of handling new apps, upgrades, etc. You have
no further upgrade ability in Office or Internet Explorer, and most
Antivirus and anti-parasite apps, multi-media apps, things like Adobe
Reader, etc. will not likely have 98/98SE compatibility in their next
generations.

What Isaac claims is simply not true. Please do yourself a favor and ignore
his advice.

My advice to you--If you are happy with what you have, and willing to be
vigilant about possible new vulnerability exploits (i.e., don't get sucked
in by blatantly false claims that Win98 is "Safer than XP"), and willing to
put up with increasingly being left at the starting line with regard to new
software and hardware support (present case of scramble to upgrade to 98SE
in order to support USB2 and for other reasons being a fine example), then
stick with what you have for as long as it's comfortable.

However, while I think you might very well run into problems upgrading to XP
from 98SE, if it ever becomes a question of what to reinstall from scratch,
then definitely take the plunge. With the 98-to-XP path, what actually
happens is a replacement of the entire system, so you may as well use File
and Settings Transfer Wizard and start fresh anyway (and convert to NTFS
file system for better security while you're at it.) For some good help with
upgrading to XP, you should start here.:
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpupgrad.htm

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP for Win9x

"Terry" wrote in message
...
Win98se
Athlon 2.2
512m/b ram
60gig h/d
Office XP
Epson Printer & Scanner

End user..odd game....spreadshhet work...& basic internet useage.

I am about to connect to ADSL from DUN, and wish to know more about
how the various O/S's would or would not improve my system
significantly. Support for 98SE, only if I should need it..?

I am happy with 98SE but unsure if I would be any better off with say
'XP'.??........speeds??

What are the differences in O/S's ??

Do I need to U/G.

I am able to run my mostly used App' (Office XP) ok with 98SE.

I do not fancy reformatting as it took a while to get all my many
Apps' & utils' etc. installed, as well as customising the PC.

I read here of many problems encountered when upgrades are attempted.

TIA