Which OS? ASAP (please)

[nemesis27]

I have reviewed the differences in XP Home vs Pro. I am not needing a OS thats based around business needs but I am a power user. I have only used Home Edition and I hate the way it slaps you in the face and tell you your too stupid to make decisions with it, and then does it for you. However the needs that need to be met are compatibility, stability and then GAMING! Home is awesome for games however I hear "bad" things about Pro and gaming, any truth to this? That is all I really every do is play 3d/GL games. I notice a lot of computer building company's (Alienware/Monarch/Falcon) focused around gaming performance and speed/stability go with Pro, why? I am needing to make a decision within a day or two. Please help me make a choice--with gaming in mind.

Thanks in advance!!

[digitalman]

If you do any type of lan gaming you will want the advance networking features of XP Pro.

[lomn75]

Home and Pro are 99%+ identical. Pro allows you to join domains and use SMP (2 processors), but that's about it for the differences. Pro is a strict superset of Home (you lose absolutely zero of Home's functionality)
//edit: Remote Desktop is Pro-only -- that's worth mentioning.

Full breakdown at these two links
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/choosing2.mspx
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_home_pro.asp

So... based on your post, you want to spend more money for no purpose other than to deal with less-annoying menus. I don't think that's worth it, but whatever.

//edit: and in response to above, I don't see how Pro's additional networking features (finger, SNMP, etc) have any relevance to gaming. Do you have an example?

[digitalman]

Home and Pro are 99%+ identical. Pro allows you to join domains and use SMP (2 processors), but that's about it for the differences. Pro is a strict superset of Home (you lose absolutely zero of Home's functionality)

Full breakdown at these two links
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/choosing2.mspx
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_home_pro.asp

So... based on your post, you want to spend more money for no purpose other than to deal with less-annoying menus. I don't think that's worth it, but whatever.

//edit: and in response to above, I don't see how Pro's additional networking features (finger, SNMP, etc) have any relevance to gaming. Do you have an example?


Yes when I and two friends set up our computers for an lan party. I was running XP Pro with "Simple File Sharing" turned off. One guy was running XP Home. Without any user name and password I was able to see and manipulate his system.

[lomn75]

Yes when I and two friends set up our computers for an lan party. I was running XP Pro with "Simple File Sharing" turned off. One guy was running XP Home. Without any user name and password I was able to see and manipulate his system.
That's his fault for having a poorly configured computer, not the OS. You can rig Pro to do the same thing.

//edit: Don't get me wrong -- I think Pro is the better OS. Given the OP's comments, though, I think he'd be pissing away $100 for the use he'll get from it.

[digitalman]

That's his fault for having a poorly configured computer, not the OS. You can rig Pro to do the same thing.

//edit: Don't get me wrong -- I think Pro is the better OS. Given the OP's comments, though, I think he'd be pissing away $100 for the use he'll get from it.I'll admit I don't know much about XP Home. Iknow that Home doesn't have the advance networking feature like 2k. I also know everyone wo loging into Home is automatically given an admin account. IIRC there is way to disable this feature of Home. If my friend had done this would that have prevented what I was able to do?

[lomn75]

I'll admit I don't know much about XP Home. Iknow that Home doesn't have the advance networking feature like 2k. I also know everyone wo loging into Home is automatically given an admin account. IIRC there is way to disable this feature of Home. If my friend had done this would that have prevented what I was able to do?
The "Advanced" features just aren't things that come up in normal usage like gaming. As for the network access -- yeah, that's just simple security know-how. I'm not sure about the default config, but it sounds like he was running wide-open (acct w/ no password). However, my understanding is that even SFS allows for basic read-only vs read-write permissions (It's in XP Pro, but I hate it so much that I don't want to re-enable it to check).

[nemesis27]

Thanks for the tips. I suppose I will stick with Home as I do not do online gaming/lan. I had just heard that Pro offered more stability and efficiency. I do not want to pay extra $ for features I would never use and if the difference in stability and efficiency is minute or does not pertain to my use of the OS then I dont need it. I just hate how Home grabs your hand and smacks it when you try to change/erase something, although I use utilities such as X-Setup Pro and manually hacking the registry to my liking it still tell's you your a moron and that you should just let the "experts" at Microsoft make decisons for you :p

Thanks again guy's.

[Phoenix86]

3hrs is not ASAP.

*taps foot*


;)

[Leadman584]

I have both runnig here at home, and my only gripe, is that home doesn't want to believe you wish to disable VM. Functionality of gpedit to override silly settings is nice too. And, the more easily accessible backup feature of Pro, has saved my butt a few times.

[Sean]

I only install pro on any system that I configure for people. I have tested home, and its OK, but personnaly I perfer the pro system.

Cheers,

[YoUnAn]

I am more inclined to use Pro then Home.
It just seems alot faster to me.

[MorfiusX]

I won't even touch a PC with home on it. I guese I am used to the extra stuff on Pro. Friends have asked me to do one thing or another for them on Home. I would go some where I expected to see a certain setting to find it wasn't there.

Granted, I can see how you would not want to spend the extra money. But, my vote is still for Pro.