XP takes some learning though. It's got lots of little annoyances that are pissing me off constantly. Programs work with it in a different way. MSN messenger is very obscure under XP. It appears that it's not loaded, yet windows suddenly pop up as people page me. It's not in the hidden icons on the task bar. When I load it properly, it appears but the usual MSN bullshit happens and you can't close it cos apparently some other program requires it open (even though no other programs are loaded). I also return to my computer every now and then and find I been automatically connected to the internet (this could explain why BT keep emailing me telling me automatic disconnection redialing it not aloud and soon they'll cancel my internet access). I've recently got download accelerator pro and norton anti-virus 2003 and it's all gone insane sinse then.
XP doesn't seem to have an impact on db at all though. In fact, it seems to run fine. The demos are ok. Be prepared for lots of your software that ran on 98 not to work though. Fairly new games are alright, but oldies like Mech Warrior 3 don't work. DOS based software is totally unusable (my old music software was DOS based an is now unloadable).
Networking with a non-XP machine requires you to put yourself in the same work group and then set up custom TCP/IP numbers .... is that the protocol XP uses to communicate over a lan??!?! It appears so because you have to set the TCP numbers to be similar for the network to work. And then, yes, you have to fiddle for another hour before stuff works.
I'm sure XP will run db apps much faster because of it's lack of the DOS layer and integration with direct x. Whoever gets XP though, be prepared to get pissed of constantly as new little "helpful" features microsoft have added generally make stuff more long winded and more hidden, and you get little unexpected things because of very very gay default settings. I found extentions being turned off very annoying. I find that taskbar hiding thing very annoying. I also find the intergration with messenger very very annoying.
Machine: P4 2200, 512MB, GeForce4 64MB, Audigy Platinum
There's a junglist inside every coder. http://www.kontact-kru.com for my own personal breakbeat terrorism.