Window 2000 Professional program

I'm trying to help a friend. He has an old Dell Latitude laptop. It originally had Windows 2000 Professional as an OS. The product tag is on the back. Somebody "helping" managed to corrupt the W2000 and loaded unsanctioned XP.

I wiped the HD and loaded Linux Ubuntu. The PC works OK for what he wants. But, he's not familiar with Linux and I noticed the W2000 tag on the back of the case. How can I get a copy of W2000P? If I can find it and load it will the old product code be accepted?

 

I doubt very much if you'll be able to get Win 2000 at this point in time. Even if you were able to, Microsoft support for it ended long ago (July 13, 2010) so, it's a security risk like XP will become next Tuesday when Microsoft support ends for XP.

If the computer will support it, go for Vista (minimum requirements)or 7 (minimum requirements). I've got Vista Ultimate running on my formerly XP Dell Precision M70. It did very well configuring all but 2 of my devices during OS installation. For the 2 it didn't configure, my XP drivers work.

 

MS dropped support for Win2K years ago and I don't believe there are even any compatible AV/malware programs available for it. If you really want to help your friend, an insecure OS isn't the answer. If he can't afford a new PC, he could try Zorin OS, which is laid out very similar to Windows.

 

Maybe give React Os a try?
http://www.reactos.org/

 

This guy is having trouble with Ubuntu. I don't think alpha stage software is going to be better for him.

 

But it is a "Windows" Clone, not Linux, so it might be easier, granted it is alpha, but what does Microsoft release that is not? :-D

 

Great suggestion. I just looked at Zorin. I think that is the best answer. I like Ubuntu, but after years of using Windows it requires a fair amount of work familiarize yourself. Not everyone wants to make the effort. The guy I'm trying to help definitely doesn't want to. So, Zorin seems to be ideal.

Thanks for the tip.

 

Don't forget, though, that Zorin OS is still a Linux distro and he'll have to still learn how to work with Terminal and other Linux specifics. I tried it on my XP machine and had difficulties myself. Oddly, the first time I installed Zorin, it seemed to work fine. Every time after that, though, it just wouldn't run properly. I don't know what caused this but, I won't be running Zorin on my laptop any more.