XP Media Center versus XP Professional

[keithspitz]

Is there any side-by-side feature comparison of XP Media Center Edition
(XPMCE) and XP Professional? There's an okay one for Home versus
Professional on the Microsoft site, but nothing similar I could find
for XPMCE.

It's tempting to buy XPMCE with my next computer (sometime Real Soon
Now), but I want to make sure that I will be able to:
1) Run IIS on the system.
2) Use Remote Desktop *client* to connect to my computer at work.
3) And maybe run the server-side of Remote Desktop so I can connect to
my new system from other locations.

Thanks in advance!

Keith Spitz

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Is there any side-by-side feature comparison of XP Media Center
Edition (XPMCE) and XP Professional? There's an okay one for Home
versus Professional on the Microsoft site, but nothing similar I
could find for XPMCE.

It's tempting to buy XPMCE with my next computer (sometime Real Soon
Now), but I want to make sure that I will be able to:
1) Run IIS on the system.
2) Use Remote Desktop *client* to connect to my computer at work.
3) And maybe run the server-side of Remote Desktop so I can connect
to my new system from other locations.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/evaluation/compare.mspx

1) Yes. MCE is Pro with the ability to join a domain innately removed and
extra apps/functionality.
2) Yes. Win 9x, ME, 2000/2003/2003R2 and XP, Mac OSX, *nix, etc all have
remote desktop client capability.
3) Yes. MCE can also be a "remote desktop server".

 

[Moderator]

They are both the same, except media center has the media center app.
and xp pro has better networking

 

[Malke]

They are both the same, except media center has the media center app.
and xp pro has better networking

This isn't true. The networking capabilities are the same. MCE can't
join a domain but it networks just fine.

Keith - Here are comparison links:

Comparison Guide -
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/choosing2.mspx

and Five Editions of Windows XP Compared -
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/evaluation/compare.mspx

MCE is a *super*set of XP Pro - it is Pro with media-related features. I
do think for your purposes that Pro would be better. If you're thinking
about running a webserver, you don't need all the frills of MCE.

Malke