XP pro vs XP home

Horsefumbler

Can someone tell me what is the difference between the two? I have pro now and i had home before and quite frankly i don't know why i payed the extra whatever it was for pro when i go my new PC, seems exactly the same.

Enlighten me

Asok

main thing with pro is that you can connect to a domain this is cut out of xphome.
Overall I don't know if its in my head or not but I find xphome alot more buggy especially with networking.

Chalk

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/howtobuy/choosing2.mspx

not much diff for the average user.
more stable aswell i think.

Fobia

For the average user....there arent really any noticable differences...both OS's offer the same basic stuff. As for stablility Pro does seem to be a little bit more stable (ie it can go a day or so without starting to go crazy) but anyone looking for stability would probably avoid windows altogether....

Not worth the extra money tbh Horsefumbler

Shane™

Virtual PC can only be used on the Pro edition, that's the only thing I've ever felt was important

Talliesin

That list doesn't mention IIS, which is a must-have if you're developing web stuff on it, especially if you want to have a system running on a laptop when it's not networked so you can demo to clients (there's a way of convincing Home Edition to allow IIS, but it isn't reliable).

Now, that's only going to apply to a small number of users, but maybe there's other stuff that applies to other users that isn't listed.

Capt'n Midnight

Horsefumbler wrote:

Can someone tell me what is the difference between the two? I have pro now and i had home before and quite frankly i don't know why i payed the extra whatever it was for pro when i go my new PC, seems exactly the same.

Enlighten me

Licensing.
In order to rip off corporates they remove some features in Home, especially the Domain options, so they can charge about €100 more for something that is 99.5% the same.
The other differance is dual processor support in Pro..

http://www.cheshirewebmill.co.uk/microsoft/

If you want to be able to manage more than a few boxes on a network we will charge you an extra £80 to put back the domain logon code that we took out of XP home. Even if you don't need a domain logon we try to encourage retailers to sell you the pro version anyway. Note if you actually want to use any of the additional functionality of XP pro you may have to pay an extra £20 client licence to actually use it.

Hobbes

Talliesin wrote:

That list doesn't mention IIS, which is a must-have if you're developing web stuff on it,.

Get apache.. 1. Cheaper (as in free), 2. Less of a resource hog and 3. better security for beginners.

One of my previous posts on this very matter:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=2281277&postcount=2

Talliesin

Hobbes wrote:

Get apache.. 1. Cheaper (as in free), 2. Less of a resource hog and 3. better security for beginners.

Not much use when the spec says IIS though.

Capt'n Midnight

Talliesin wrote:

Not much use when the spec says IIS though.

Anything that needs IIS probably costs more than the upgrade to PRO.
not much that the average user really needs IIS for is there ?

It Isn't Secure !

Fionn

The full Terminal Services Client (which i've used to great advantage) is a feature that works differently between the two XP Home can control an XP Pro computer from another location but strangely enough does not work other way around!.

Another feature of Pro is the Roaming User Profile. On a network this lets you access all your documents and settings from any computer no matter where you log on at. If your upgrading both Pro and Home can upgrade from Win 98 but only Pro can upgrade from Win NT/2000
I guess beside that, better (it's claimed) security and wireless/network functionality than home!!
and off topic sorta
some good points noted here
http://weblogs.asp.net/larryosterman/archive/2004/10/18/244113.aspx

Horsefumbler

thanks for the info lads. looks like i shoulda went with home and saved myself a buck or two

Capt'n Midnight

Fionn wrote:

The full Terminal Services Client (which i've used to great advantage) is a feature that works differently between the two XP Home can control an XP Pro computer from another location but strangely enough does not work other way around!.

oh well VNC is free.

Another feature of Pro is the Roaming User Profile. On a network this lets you access all your documents and settings from any computer no matter where you log on at.

All part of the corporate TAX, even windows 95 can authenticate off a Domain - the feature was removed in XP home

limbovski

A little late but this article gives some info on the networking differences between the two...