Most of my platforms are running Win2k, but my wife's laptop has xp home and the os has never crashed for either of us.

It's actually kind of neat to watch xp in trouble...things may freeze for a few seconds, or the screen might even go blank, but it always recovers (can't say the same about every app, of course, but the os seems very stable).

I think compatibility has been and is continuing to improve rapidly. Anyone who wants a part of the pc market is going to have to make sure their stuff plays well with XP.

I really like Win98. I've even still got it running on an old machine. But it's yesterday's news and the industy's moved on. If you're looking at a primary os to carry you into the future, I don't know if you'd be well-advised to rely heavily on Win98.

Just my opinion.

(OTOH...if you can't get the drivers you need to get your preferred hardware running under XP, the question would seem to be moot. w00t!)