Pros: Highly stable; Secure; Easy to network; Very little problems; No activation required
Cons: Service Pack problems can make you pull your hair out!
The bottom line: You just won't find a more stable and reliable OS from Microsoft. Win 2000 offers the best of NT4 with a tad of Win XP, and shaken to perfection.
I'm going to say this outright: I used to be a Windows XP lover. With that said, now I can continue. I just recently switched to Windows 2000 after a measly and ever dissatisfactory outing with Microsoft's touted Windows XP Home. Windows XP Home came with my Alienware (which is the best computer I've ever had) and I used it for about a year, thinking that it would be the last OS I would ever need. Boy was I wrong.

Windows XP Home is an OS that suffers from one thing: limitations set by Microsoft because it wants XP Home to be "Pro's little brother." This ranges from a great lack of networking features, all the way to the fact that user accounts are either Admin or Limited. I got fed up from all these shortcomings after I figured out that I needed more than XP Home offered. I didn't have the money to go out and buy XP Pro, but I had a copy of Windows 2000 laying around.

After I reset my partitions, I started out with a clean install of Win 2000. I wouldn't recommend installing a new OS any other way; in fact, I clean install Windows every 6 months to get rid of all the junk that accumalates. Installation got a bit rough after Win 2000 stated that it could not find certain files on the disc. Indeed, the files were present, but the people at Microsoft had decided to make the installation search for files that had ~, instead of _. So I put these files onto a floppy and inserted it, and Win 2000 found the properly named files there. After this one (rather lengthy 2 hour) setback, the OS installed with ease. No problems with hardware not passing inspection or anything; it was as clean as it gets.

Finally, after I got up and running, I started to test out my new OS. I was truly amazed; the ever-popular 9x user interface was present, and I was ecstatic. The interface that XP uses is too cartoony and not the way I like to have things. You can pretty much summarize the Win 2000 interface with one statement: The best of 9x is still here, the garbage is now gone, and worthy improvements are plenty. Joyous.

Drivers, another area that was regarded as being in the "don't ask, don't tell" area when the OS launched only 3 years ago, is nothing to worry about any longer. I feared that something would not install because of a lack of stable drivers. What was I worrying about? I found stable drivers for every component; 95% of the time, in fact, a driver that is made for XP also works for 2000. Did I lose performance between Win XP and Win 2000? Not at all. I think that everything runs even better than it ever did on XP Home.

I cannot say that I am big into multimedia, but I am a true gamer and heard from others that if I went to 2000, I was just digging my own grave. Guess again. My games (BF 1942, UT 2003, CS, MOH:AA) play awesome and my frame rate is as stable, or even better, on Win 2000. Likewise, there is no game in my collection that doesn't install or refuse to play on my machine. Microsoft listened to the voice of the gamers and took Win 2000 from the gaming chump that it was around launch, to the master OS for games (as far as I'm concerned.) College students, in particular, mostly use Win 2000 on their notebooks/towers because it allows them to access their school's internet/intranet with ease. They love to game, and this was truly a godsend for them.

Now, the area that broke the camel's back for Win XP Home, is user accounts. I have a family in the house that I need to set specific restrictions for on each person, and Win XP Home was a hell-hole for my needs. It allows only 2 types of accounts: Admin and Limited. Of course, the only admin I want to have is myself (I'm selfish ;). That leaves me with limited for everyone else. Now, in retrospect, Win 2000 offers the most options on limitations of any OS I've ever used. Win XP Home didn't let me touch or configure anything at all, besides what stupid icon my family members could have. On my Win 2000 machine, I've got an account for every member of the family, with each member having specific limitations and privelages. This OS is truly a godsend.

Who would I recommend this OS to? This is a hard question to answer, but I think that anyone that has been through Win 98 or NT for more than a year can install and use Win 2000 with ease. Using 2K is a no-brainer for any IT, network admin, or power user, even performance gamer. It's got a bevy of features that appeal to anyone looking for a stable OS, and is looking for a Win XP alternative (my guess is 2/5 people reading this are looking to switch from XP to 2000.)

I have almost no gripes with Win 2K. I have come upon a few odd occurances with 2K that are a bit annoying, which I would like to speak of. (As a sidenote, all of my review is based upon the SP4 edition of Win 2K.) One problem I have noticed is that for some reason Norton AntiVirus 2003 and SP4 do not like eachother. Even though I have taken measures to get them to coincide, I am still not able to use Outlook Express 6 after installing Norton 2003. Maybe there is a way to fix this, but Microsoft and Symantec haven't (nor will they) acknowledged this problem. Other than this, a few other minor things in Win 2K that bug me are the fact that you cannot put your clock in sync with an atomic time server (Win XP has this built in) and sometimes after coming out of standby my LCD doesn't catch a video signal from Win 2000 (I wouldn't rule out the fact that maybe my LCD is the problem.)

If you're looking to upgrade from NT4, or even a downgrade from XP, 2000 is a logical choice that has made me a believer. Don't take Microsoft's word on Win XP as being the "ultimate OS" because if you put 2K and XP head-to-head, you won't see much reason to use XP unless you have to be "up to snuff" or adore XP's "cartoon land" feel. Don't be afraid; 2000 is the way to go.
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**NOTE** I am a part of the staff for Xtreme LAN (www.XtremeLAN.cjb.net), a Chicago based LAN party that was established in February of 2003. I have used Win 2000 for 3 of our LAN parties, and as many people know, this is where you can really put an OS to the test. Not only did I participate in large 20+ man games over a 100Mbps network, I hosted many games on system with ease. I can't say the same for Win XP; half of our guests who come to the parties have Win XP's built in firewall running and can't figure out why they can't connect to our network. If you use Win XP, this is one feature you never want to use.