windows server 2003 and windows XP home edition

I currently have an old Insipron 2100 laptop and I'm deciding what to do with it. I love the size and weight of this laptop , and I don't want to give it up. The fan on it seems to be broken (it shuts itself down whenever I run CPU intensive programs like avast anti-virus scan), so I've ordered another from Dell and I hope to install it within the next couple of weeks (I think I can do it myself, but if not I'll ask for help from Dell and possibly this site's hardware forums). I have barely used it since last summer

My two basic questions:
How much memory and CPU does Windows 2003 Standard Edition use compared with Windows XP Home Edition?
Are you running Windows 2003 Standard Edition on a Dell Inspiron 2100 and if so, what's your system config, and your experience with it?

I looked on Microsoft.com at the sys req for Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP Home Edition but there's no substitute for actual experiences of real people.


Here is some additional background, if you are wondering where I'm coming from:

Since I posted in this thread: http://forums.whatthetech.com/Replacing_Ms…l+Inspiron+2100 I have bought an Inspiron 1420 running Vista home premium. I had first attempted to buy an Acer with the default amount of memory, but Vista ran too slowly on it. So I took it back.

I bought the Dell 1420 with 2 GB of Ramdb, and it runs quite well, for now. Eventually, I'll probably find it slowing down due to what I call "MS Windows Operating System bloat", but that's not an issue right now on the 1420. I would have bought Windows XP on the 1420, except that Dell refused to sell me anything except Vista! Argh! One of my software development environments is Delphi 7 and it isn't compatible with Vista (or Linux, for that matter)

Since I posted that thread, I also bought a tiny (and I mean tiny!) Asus EEE PC with Xandros Linux on it. It's fun to play with, but it's screen and keyboard are too small to do much more than read email and write plain text, and web browsing is difficult, and I miss some of my MS Windows applications (though I've heard of Wine and CrossOver, which I might experiment with later on).


Back to the Dell Inspiron 2100: I have a new choice! I was able to get a version of Windows Server 2003 at a discount. So, here are my three choices:
1) Keep Windows XP on the 2100(with whatever updates MS requires/recommends)
Downside: this is what I have right now, and it is painfully slow
Upside: many (most?) home computers have XP on them, so I'll have access, as I develop software, to the most commonly used platform of potential users of my software

2) Install Windows Server 2003 on the 2100
Downsides:

• It could be even slower than Windows XP Home Edition is right now
• It's not a commonly used platform, so when I write software, I might not catch things my targeted users would encounter. Might not be such a big deal because I have "Virtual PC" on the new Inspiron 1420, and I might be able to test SW I write for XP platform using that. On the other hand, when I started up Virtual PC to set up a virtual machine, it tells me I'm not running a supported Operating System (Vista Home Ed, I think it means)
• Some of my current applications I use might not be compatible - I've found out that Delphi 7 isn't compatible with Vista, for example, so the same could happen with Win2K3.
• It's a hassle (for me anyway) to uninstall/install OSs(that's not my forte). It would be an even bigger hassle to install back XP if 2003 is slower than XP

Upsides:

• It could be faster than Windows XP, fast enough so I could run *some* version of MS Windows on my little laptop and be happy with it.
• I'm guessing most of my favorite apps I run now on the XP system will be compatible

3) Install some version of Linux now that I've got some experience with that "under my belt"
Downsides:

• My MS Windows applications would not be available to me unless I put Wine, CrossOver or something similar on it
• If Virtual PC (on the 1420) and/or CrossOver don't emulate XP well enough, I will lose access to Windows XP as a testing platform
• It's a hassle to uninstall/install operating systems
• I don't know how much of my little laptop's hardware will be "grokked" by Linux. Will USB work? What about the CD drive? What about the LinkSys Wireless network card? I've test driven DSL on it, and I think the USB was okay, but I don't remember about the CD drive. And I believe the Wireless card didn't work; not sure if there'd be a driver for it somewhere out there in Linux-land.

Upsides:

• I get to keep the little 2100 and use it for running Linux software, and developing & testing software for users of Linux operating systems
• If I can get the wireless card working, I could also use it for surfing, blogging, email.

Thank you in advance for any information you can share with me comparing Win2K3 and XP home ed,
Linda

Here are my thoughts. Win2K was designed to run on a corporate network. XP was designed primarily for stand alone use. Win2K is old technology. NT, XP and Win2K are built on the NT core, run on the same hardware platform, run the same programs, therefore, their memory requirements are similar. If buying a new computer, I see no reason to not get Vista - as long as it comes preinstalled with SP1. Yes, there are more XP machines out there right now, but that will soon change. XP is going away. Vista is here to stay. "Resistance is futile". You will become a Vista user. Might as well take it on now, it will not get easier. If you are coding for others, you should use Vista, IMO.

Here are my thoughts. Win2K was designed to run on a corporate network. XP was designed primarily for stand alone use. Win2K is old technology.

NT, XP and Win2K are built on the NT core, run on the same hardware platform, run the same programs, therefore, their memory requirements are similar.

If buying a new computer, I see no reason to not get Vista - as long as it comes preinstalled with SP1. Yes, there are more XP machines out there right now, but that will soon change. XP is going away. Vista is here to stay. "Resistance is futile". You will become a Vista user. Might as well take it on now, it will not get easier.

If you are coding for others, you should use Vista, IMO.

Digerati - Thanks for your thoughts: Not much diff between 2003 and XP, so probably not much diff in what resources they'd use. I'll give that some thought. (There's no way I could put Vista on this computer, but then I don't need to since the newer one has it)

thx,
Linda

There's no way I could put Vista on this computer

That's why I said, "if buying a new computer…"