Windows XP - Pro or Home?

#1 Here is a link to the Microsoft site describing the differences between Home and Professional: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/choosing2.asp.

Justin Mette
21-6 Productions

#2 Neither. Don't buy into the Microsoft hype. Stick with Win98. It doesn't have the onerous activation features, and doesn't clog up your system with unwanted "features" like .net Passport, or MSN Messenger.

Seriously, this is a subject for a complete article, but supporting MS and it's monopolistic ways is bad for your long term game developer health.

Jeff Tunnell GG

#3 Well Win98 is bad for my current health. It's buggy, it crashes constantly, I'm always having to reboot. I tried XP RC1 and I loved it - but it didn't love my 3dfx card. Or my Visor. Or any number of games/things that didn't want to support a pre-release OS. But it never crashed or blue screened on me. And it ran faster, believe it or not. I've heard love stories about Win2000 and I'm willing to hack out/ignore XP's "features" like Passport and Messenger and I'm sure as hell ditching the Fisher Price interface, but if you're like me and at this point in time are uninterested in Macintosh and/or Linux, what's the best thing to do?

Schnapple

#4 If you consider upgrade your OS on your current HW, you better check the XP compability with your computer. Lot of people with 3dfx cards can't get 3D HW acc running on XP.

#5 Go with windows 2000. If you're coming from 9x (you say you're running win98), you'll quickly fall in love with 2k :) WinXP is basically a dumbed down Win2k with a cartoon GUI, registration requirements, the aforementioned .net password and MSN messenger, etc .. I've been running Win2k since it first came out and I love it.. It's powerful, stable, supports all my hardware (nowadays most hardware will work on win2k anyway). If you feel the need to upgrade, Win2k is the way to go

#6 I run WinXP, and I must say it's unbelievable stable
(my previous Win98 was also stable, but not to this
extent). Been running it for 3 months+ now, without
a BSOD or lockup. And it boots much faster than
2k as well.

It also runs just about any app I can throw at
it.

I like it. BTW Messenger is hacked away. The activation
feature is hacked away, and I use the "Classic" skin.
Just don't tell anyone. :)

#7 I'm not at all a Microsoft fan, defenetly don't like what they are trying to achieve with their new strategys (cuz I like some privacy :)).... but last week I decided to intall XP after all... all I can say is its incredibly stable... don't remember its crashing once, not even Torque (wich crashed every 10 minutes in win 98 or ME and yes... even on 2000 it sometimes crashed)... so... if you hate microsoft or not, its the best out of the windows series, so I see no reason not installing it

#8 I'm not a Windows fan myself but Win2K is definetly the way to go. Windows XP just comes with a bunch of extra junk that you really don't need. Plus I saw some benchmarks on a Win2K and a WinXP machine with the same hardware. Win2K won hands down every time. From a developer standpoint Win2K is still the way to go.

#9 Well at this point/rate I'm probably going to go for XP (instead of 2K or 98) for various reasons, not the least of which have to do with price (though if I was overly concerned with price I guess I'd go to Linux).

As for Pro or Home, I guess I'll also opt for the home version for the aforementioned price reasons (there's always the "oh shit" upgrade down the road).

Schnapple

#10 Don't.
XP is a piece of MS junk, use Linux or 2k.
I would reccomend Linux, but if you're developing for windows that *could* be a problem. So ME, or 2k are you're best bets if you're developing windows games.


- ian wheat

#11 Ive been running XP since RC2 (now with pro, since we have few NT domains on campus) and it mixes well with torque... zero problems, and if you computer is fast enough to handle it ( a friend with a 333 celron also installed it, runs faster than 98 did, and he migrated the 98 install to XP) so, having used XP (since any one whos a naysayer so far sounds as if they havnt used it) i give it a thumbs up. and the pro edition doesnt have hardware activation... heh... and ive stripped all the "features" i didnt like, skinned the gui as i saw fit... love the XP
Ryan

#12 I work as a computer repair technician and XP has caused more problems than you can possibly imagine. I could list all the problems but I'm just speaking from experience. On the other hand a fellow ISP administrator runs another ISP with stripped versions of XP pro, says that the multiprocessor edition is a dream. We run NT4.0 on my stores ISP servers and he made a real convinving argument to push my boss to upgrade. Honestly I'd wait on XP. Everyone says it's more stable and maybe it's true for servers, but I don't think it's tested enough. Also I am fully against Hailstorm (My .NET) and Passport. XP is good, but so is 98SE, and 98 runs anything you could possibly want. You'll get convincing arguments on both sides, I say just wait and see.

#13 I have to use XP at on of my jobs, and I really have nothing good to say about it. It feels like AOL, only for your OS. It also assumes it knows what I want more than I do. Many of its features have the appearance of being helpful, but actually are more of a nuisance than a help. Now I have not used it enough to know how to turn off all that I don't like, or to get used to it, but right now, I would never purchase it. Just my two cents...

#14 Well IMHO the "Big Brother" annoyances outweigh the "Crashing all the time" annoyances I get with Win98SE, and I like being a legit owner of software (compilers, game engines) so the WPA thing doesn't irk me at all.

Schnapple

#15 ok first of all I hate microsoft, BUT they have come out with a really good operating system. It's called Windows 2000. Choose what you want but i'm telling this from my actual experience!

on contrary to popular opinion windows 2000 is VERY good for entertainment. Microsoft needed sales for Win ME (i'm guessing) which is why they said 2k was NOT for games and other forms of entertainment. However their FIRST compatability list had a lot of games to become compatable with. Professional is also hassle free when installing (well maybe that's because i've installed NT 4 server and that spammed me with trillions of questions). Any game that has crashed in ANY WYA I have been able to ctrl-alt-delete to get to the task manager and kill the application without any problems to my computer. I CANNOT say the same thing for xp!

I've had the fun of getting XP. Now when I first heard about xp I was really happy because i thought it would still be basically win2k at it's core with stability and what not. Well it wasn't. First of all, Microsoft does not have good drivers and I ended up using NT 4 drivers for my video card to get opengl or direct 3d. So i'm playing games and I crash. Well It seems that (i had pro version) ctrl-alt-delete menu AS WELL AS the task manager have been given lesser priority then in 2k. Therefore i had to manually reboot by pressing the moniter. That IS not good. I had various problems in games and the OS (coudln't use aol, icq, and many other microsoft programs and I'm NOT joking!).

I did a dual boot with win2k so i decided to go back to win2k. well winxp thought it would have 'fun' with me and made add/remove programs NOT work at all on win2k, and it deleted winsock. I even did file sweep and tried to get the files repaired but i finally gave up and formatted. Do what you people want, it really couldn't make a difference for me. Many other people i've talked to had the same problems.

XP sounds so great to people becaause they've never used windows 2000. They've used ME and 98 and they think these features arew WOW and even in the pro version they are not! They are a degrade from windows 2000. You all are entitiled to your opinions but i've tried both 2k AND XP and i'm telling you my opinion ffirst hadn.

2000 Is a gaming os and to me seems like the perfect one. You don't believe me? People say, "It can't run dos" and crap like that. I've played Daggerfall and many other Dos only games. The fact that win2k emulates dos makes those games all the more stable and you don't need to exit the os to play them like in 98. 2000 even has 95/98/nt4 emulation for windows applications if you really want (dunno what it's for) where it just emulates those applications in those operating system. This actully helps when installing old games that don't like NT (but dont' detect 2000).

Also remember. XP is made from 2000. I would LOVE to see what can be done in XP that can't be done in 2000.

2000 is a hardcore gaming os, nomatter what magazines and people say. I've been using it since it came out and after my little run in wiht XP I will not upgrade.

#16 I have to say, having run win2k pro, that i agree with the above... i ran it over the summer, windows had a 23 day uptime. and i did lots of divx ripping and converting. i migrated to XP after network problems when i came back to school, just because it looked cool. I like XP, and because i love 2k, when i get my server built, ill be running 2k on the server, XP on my desktop (coz i love the virtual desktops that the powertoys give you- my favorite thing from linux, and its a free DL from m$.com)
Ryan