XP Pro vs XP Home advice

[kevin]

I'm configuring a new machine to use at home. I do a fair
amount of programming and am reasonably savvy as a user.
Other than using a VPN client and a lot of VB and
java/j2ee coding (mostly Cold Fusion), I don't really do
much out of the ordinary.

I'm looking for advice on whether to buy XP Pro or Home
for the new Athlon 3200 box I'm setting up. Any thoughts?

thanx
Kevin

 

[Rob Schneider]

See http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/evaluation/default.asp, in
particular http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/whichxp.asp

Nothing you mention below really suggests to me that you need XP Pro
except for your mention fo Cold Fusion which suggests to me that you may
benefit by having IIS web server which only works with XP. (But you
could Apache on Home with no problem).

Hope this is useful to you. Let us know.

rms

 

[GrndpaDoug]

Pro offers better security and network capabilities. I guess the biggest
benefit of PRO over HOME is that PRO seems a heck of a lot more stable and
bullet proof. I am forever installing and uninstalling applications to test
drive them. It seem with the HE version I could crash it/lock it up at least
once a week. I used HE for 2 years. I switched to PRO in late 2001 and beat
the be-jabbers out of it. The PRO version has only given me problems maybe
twice. It has been so long between issues I really can't be sure. Mind you
this is only my opinion and you will get many others. For the difference in
cost PRO would be the one for me.
Cheers Doug

 

[Vagabond Software]

Consider this, if you currently use Windows 2000 Professional, you would be
"downgrading" your features and functionality when you "upgrade" to Windows
XP Home Edition.

I see you do a little VB. Now, I don't know if that is just vbscript type
stuff for web apps, but if you have any plans on getting into .NET; you'll
want to have XP Pro on your computer.

If the extra $100 is not a major issue in the decision, I wouldn't hesitate
to go Pro.

- carl

 

[Ron Martell]

Pro offers better security and network capabilities. I guess the biggest
benefit of PRO over HOME is that PRO seems a heck of a lot more stable and
bullet proof. I am forever installing and uninstalling applications to test
drive them. It seem with the HE version I could crash it/lock it up at least
once a week. I used HE for 2 years. I switched to PRO in late 2001 and beat
the be-jabbers out of it. The PRO version has only given me problems maybe
twice. It has been so long between issues I really can't be sure. Mind you
this is only my opinion and you will get many others. For the difference in
cost PRO would be the one for me.
Cheers Doug

Your problems with Home were caused by something other than the
differences between the Home and Pro versions. The two versions are
*identical* except for those specific features and functions which are
found only in Pro.

The two versions are compiled from the same source code base.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

In

I'm configuring a new machine to use at home. I do a fair
amount of programming and am reasonably savvy as a user.
Other than using a VPN client and a lot of VB and
java/j2ee coding (mostly Cold Fusion), I don't really do
much out of the ordinary.

I'm looking for advice on whether to buy XP Pro or Home
for the new Athlon 3200 box I'm setting up. Any thoughts?

XP Professional and XP Home are exactly the same in all respects,
except that Professional has a few features (mostly related to
networking and security) missing from Home. For most (but not
all) home users, these features aren't needed, would never be
used, and buying Professional instead of Home is a waste of
money.

For details go to

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_home_pro.asp

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/whichxp.asp

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/choosing2.asp

Also note that Professional allows ten concurrent network
connections, and Home only five.

 

[cquirke (MVP Win9x)]

On Sat, 17 Apr 2004 09:34:01 -0700, "GrndpaDoug"

benefit of PRO over HOME is that PRO seems a heck of a lot more stable

Sounds more like XP (unpatched) vs. XP SP1 than Home vs. Pro

-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -

Running Windows-based av to kill active malware is like striking
a match to see if what you are standing in is water or petrol.

 

[Alex Nichol]

Sounds more like XP (unpatched) vs. XP SP1 than Home vs. Pro

It sounds to me more like an attitude to statistics exhibited in an old
paper in Geophysics that I remember for the line

"considering small samples - that is to say samples of less than two"

People will generalise far too readily. Aside from the additional
features that are installed only in Pro, the code of the Pro and Home
versions is identical, and there is nothing there to make for difference
in stability - except perhaps Home users being more inclined to install
every piece of badly written software they can get their hands on