install windows 2000 with preinstalled windows XP in Dell Inspiron. 1297

I think you'll find that everybody has their own favorite version of Windows for their own reasons.

Some people will choose 98SE as being among the most stable version of windows with the least hardware requirements for their needs,

Some people prefer Windows 2k, and some will prefer Windows XP. each has their own reasons for their choice.

The corporate enviornment I work in currently has probably close to 200 PC's all of various ages and flavors of windows.

Believe it or not, we stll have some laptops that we use for data acquestion that dual-boot DOS and Windows 95.

the other systems run everything from Win98 to NT to Win2k, and XP.

For what we use the PC's for, If I had to choose, I'd say overall, Win2K has been the most stable platform for us.

If you feel most comfortable with Win2k, then go for it.

If you're concerned about the legality of installing Win2K on your system, from what I was told by Microsoft a few years ago (things may have changed).

If it's an OEM license, then the product is legally tied to that one PC it came on. It cannot be transferred to another system. If the PC dies, the license dies with it. (boy does that suck).

If it's a retail license, then you can legally transfer the product to another PC as long as it's completely removed from the first PC.

Also, if it's a retail product, all the previous versions of that same product are Grandfathered into the license. That is to say, if you bought the current retail version of a Microsoft product, you have the legal right to use that version or any other previous version of that same prouct. This comes in handy when a company perhaps has a whole slew of PC's running a particular version of a Microsoft product, (just for example Microsoft Project) but then they get another PC Microsoft only sells a newer version. As long as you buy a legal copy of the newer version, you're allowed to install the older version.