[lenor]

and if you need an OS a tiny bit faster than XP try Server 2003, however to be used as a workstation some settings eg. acceleration/enable some services/disable shutdown event tracker and it ships without MS Java VM which can be installed. all drivers for xp 32 will install on server 2003 32 and i will quote someone:

Quote:

but the catch is a few programs will not install on a Server (or as they sometimes call it a ".NET Server" operating system). Luckily these are mostly blocks on .MSI files and there are included fixes in *censored* to get around this blocking of installation. Once installed, the apps work just as they do on XP and it is often the case that the only reason you couldn't use the program on Server 2003 was the MSI file that installs the program was coded to deliberately refuse to install on a Server operating system. For EXE files there is also a fix, using "Application Verifier" to fool whatever you're installing into thinking the OS is XP SP3.

but in general you should run XP.