Like Kevin, I have done a lot of XP installations and had few problems. Unlike Kevin, I do mess with settings, just to see what problems I can cause. I never need to reinstall though, because I'm using a program that Symantec recently purchased from Roxio called GoBack. GoBack works like system restore on steroids. It doesn't just restore system files,but everything on your hard drive to a point of your choosing. GoBack sets restore points automatically, so you can go back 5 minutes, ten minutes, an hour, or two days or more. I don't even use my anti-virus to clean virii out....just go back to before it got on my system. It's a great program and there's a trial version available from Symantec.

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Kevin: Many cheers and claps. I've run NT-W2K-XP Pro since they came out, and have NEVER had a problem that wasn't self-inflected! I'm sure Mandrake people will get the same complaints.

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Couldn't agree more with Kevin. I've had no problems of any importance in the year I've been running XP. I too avoid all these silly little so-called programs that people seem to love. I have a good AV program that seems to catch everything, a good firewall, I keep the computer clean. I read the manuals (!), I try to know what I'm doing before I do it. I go into the registry because I know what I'm doing. I wonder how many have mucked around in there and destroyed things that way. When giving advice on this forum that suggests working in the registry, I always add in caps that people shouldn't do it if they don't know what they're doing. I'm not a system administrator, IT tech, consultant, or anything else in the field. I just enjoy having a machine that works well. I'd like to see some of the cars people drive who seem reularly to destroy their computers. Probably a lot of similarities. I'm not trying to boast, but advise the use of common sense. Reinstalling, formatting, etc. is almost always never the answer. It's almost always much simpler. I'm glad at times that LMAO exists.

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Hi Brian, I feel your pain, but I noticed you said you're a software developer. Maybe it's the type of work you're doing that's causing problems. Understand I'm not saying you're no good at your job, it's just a known thing that software development will break computers - at least windows systems. I have two software developers here in my office and they also have tons of problems. This is because their work often screws with windows dlls, settings, configurations etc. No one else has any real problems. What I finally did was install VMware on their machines. Now all of their development work is done in a virtual machine, and when they screw it up (it's inevitable), I can simply copy a backup file of the virtual machine back over and they're up and going again. I think Mandrake is a good choice for an OS, and I have to agree that it's better than XP. Fortunately you can run VMware on that too and use WinXP in a virtual machine for your software work. That way you'll have the best of both worlds.

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...and salgolf; I like your comment about the cars. I've often wondered the same thing.

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Linux blows, Been there...done that. Kevin, the reason we don't have trouble is probably for the exact reasons you stated and one more. We are not running overclocked AMD's on PC chips mobo's with some backyard BIOS surrounded by 35 neon lit fans. Jimi_l

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Ur pc probly sucks balls

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