Microsoft's Windows XP Professional Edition

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Author	Topic: Microsoft's Windows XP Professional Edition
ArgonV JAG	posted 10-27- 02:53 AM Well, since I work for Best Buy, and since I took the training, I won a free full version copy of Microsoft's Windows XP Professional Edition. IT will be here in about 6-8 weeks time tho... When I get it, I will be sure to let you all know my thoughts on this operating system. P.S. Retail cost is over $300 U.S. dollars for this baby! IP: Logged
Spanky the Mad Dog Pilot	posted 10-27- 03:24 AM Up here at staples (the only place that came to mind that would be easy to get it at) here are the prices for upgrade and full versions of XP in home and pro versions. I'm personally not sure what Pro includes that Home doesn't. Win XP home edition upgrade $139. That sounds resonable, I guess. Win XP home edition Full $299. To me $300 is just a LITTLE INSANE, thats more then my board/ram and chip all together, including shipping and taxes(on the hardware) Win XP Pro upgrade $299 Win XP Pro Full $449 XP plus is 49 bucks. Win ME full version is $299 Win ME upgrade is $129 Doesn't it seem crazy that ME is the same as Win XP? Wacky stuff. Win 2000 Pro is $299 For comparisions sake, the only other OS listed on the site is corel Linux OS, $29. All Prices Canadian. Personally I think 300 or 450 for ANY OS is a little freaking crazy, maybe its just me. I know its the main peice of software on the system but man is that alot of money. Almost makes it cheaper to just buy some box computer just to get the OS, but you never get the disk anymore it seems. I'll be sticking with 98SE for quite A while it seems, not that i think I would be installing XP even if it was free right now. IP: Logged
goth Pilot	posted 10-27- 08:50 AM Well XP has a new feature which will kill the ability to get a new OS with a box and then use it on multiple PC's. With XP you have to "activate" the software online, supposedly it will only activate on one paticulr machine at a time based on the machines configuaration and ID. Between the price, the lack of a need to upgrade OS, and the control of the uses to which I pu the software to, I WILL NOT be buying XP for any PC I work on. IP: Logged
Hawk General	posted 10-27- 10:09 AM Reports of lower frame rates also puts me off. But, the big thing is the activation part. I change stuff way too much to mess with that crap. IP: Logged
ArgonV JAG	posted 10-27- 12:12 PM From what I know about the activation, is that you only have to do it once 5 or so parts are changed. Because by then, you really have a new computer. Its just hardware activation only... And its easy. (Not software) Win XP is NOT the same as Win ME. I know this for a fact. There are butt loads more stuff in Win XP and its butt loads more stable. (I'll prove this when I get it) Win XP is supposedly 45% faster that Win 98 or Win 98SE. But it takes up a Gig of HDD space. But then again its way more stable aswell. But I'll prove that when I get it aswell. IP: Logged
Lothar Pilot	posted 10-27- 12:30 PM Microsoft has cracked down on reselling your old Windows versions via Ebay, etc. Seems those click-licenses say that you can't resell the software after you are done with it. Great. Keep those old Win98 disks! There is no way that WinXP is 45% faster than Win98. I'll admit right now that I've never tried it myself, but I have read that WinXP/OfficeXP is 40% slower on the same hardware than Win2k/Office2k. Considering that Win2k feels like a pig on my P400 with 256MB RAM (Win98 is fine on it), I'd guess that WinXP is much slower than Win98. Anyone else hate all those "time savers" in the new MS OSs/apps like hiding most menu options until you click on the extra arrows? I use a computer for my livelyhood. I feel like a carpenter would if they started making all industrial tools out of cast iron with saftey catches over every button. IP: Logged
Spanky the Mad Dog Pilot	posted 10-27- 12:53 PM Faster my ass, with all the extra bloat and features its going to take even more power and space on your hard drive. 1.5 gigs. ONE AND A HALF GIGS. Thats just insane. It comes with a built in firewall. Great ya say? Not when it only monitors stuff trying to get in and not all the windows components trying to talk to the outside world. So install zone alarm ya say? Can't windows takes over slowly, eventually zone alarm isn't running anymore. Same with other programs, windows will assert control over your system and make all its "bundled" programs take over your files again even if you specify that other programs are supposed to be the default program for opening them. About the whole activation thing, yeah your right I forgot about that. I would just use a crack though. I'm hopeing some people put together a winXP light program like they did with win98. Get rid of all that bloat and leave me an OS. It would at least be nice if you could unintall all that bloat but no, ya can't do that. IP: Logged
ArgonV JAG	posted 10-27- 01:45 PM Well sure if you run XP on a P2 400 box it will be slower than Win 98 or 98SE. But XP is designed for faster computers, so I can see where it will be faster than 98 on faster computers and slower than 98 on slower computers... (Duh?) IP: Logged
Sv JAG	posted 10-27- 02:16 PM I was really mad about the registering thing too, but it seems that you can still install in on multiple systems. I did, and they both registered fine. But mine is a speical version, not the retail. But it did have to be registered on-line to install, both of them. It looks like it is made for the average home PC user... and made to be bundled with new systems. I think $300 is too much for poor home-builders. I think $150 sounds better. It does insall WAY easier. The Win2000 install is LIGHT YEARS ahead of NT, and it looks like XP is that much better than ME in this reguard. It found all my drivers by itself! Even for odd devices. It installed on both my systems with NO action needed by me! It had to reboot a few times... and did all by itself. Also all the internet and NIC cards worked with no help from me. Spooky! I am sticking with ME for now. My sysem works GREAT until I add certain devices or software... it seems like the 3rd party software tools are worse than the OS now. Even Adobe PhotoShop 6 is crashing my system at times... the old Photoshop versions NEVER did this. I reverted back to Photoshop 5, a much better product IMO. I hope they fix the issues in the next release... ------------------ -Sv Wings with Wires IP: Logged
Lothar Pilot	posted 10-27- 02:17 PM I've never heard of a program which gets 80% relatively faster due to a clock speed improvement, e.g. "A" is 40% slower than "B" when both are running on a 400Mhz computer, but "A" is 40% faster that "B" when both are running on a 1200Mhz computer. Some relative speed improvement can happen if program "A" but not program "B" understand new features of the hardware, such as extended instruction sets. These types of speed improvements are always overstated, and closer to 5% than the 80% described. IP: Logged
Nat JAG	posted 10-27- 05:17 PM Why should I buy XP anyway, when it will only make my system slower, like I said in another thread, if I reverted to win3.11 my machine would whop almost any other machine out there, lets face it, since win3.11 newer OS=slower machine [This message has been edited by Nat (edited 10-27-2001).] IP: Logged
BurkeyMK2 Pilot	posted 10-27- 08:18 PM fuck this shit. Far too many liberties taken with this crap. i'll not be downloading Windows Xp IP: Logged
ArgonV JAG	posted 10-27- 11:24 PM LMAO!! Its one thing to buy it, but since Im getting it for free, Im not complaining any. For a free product, it has gone past my expectations. I just want to play with it! IP: Logged
Snickers Pilot	posted 10-27- 11:59 PM The only way Ill get XP is if I buy a PC and it comes bundlesd with it (Same way I got Win ME). From the professional point of view, the activation part sucks. If I am running a plant that must legally report emissions every day, and XP decides there has been a change that warrants revalidating the software, I am in a world of hurt. Add to that the fact that 98% of my customes do not have internet access for these machines (heathens). From $Soft point of view it makes sense. From me as a reseller it doesnt, and we will be looking for software that does the same thing (HMI) under a different OS..... IP: Logged
Spanky the Mad Dog Pilot	posted 10-28- 02:05 PM I get ya ArgonV, its free so why not, thats cool. There stuff I don't personally like (bloat, taking more control over your machine and such) so even If I did have a copy for free I wouldn't use it, I'd probly sell it and use the money on a peice of hardware. What do you do Snick? If I bought a PC that came with it (I can't see it cause I have never bought a whole PC, always build) I would probly take it out. Maybe later after tons of people have used it and found out all the stuff it does or doesn't do or some stuff just won't run without it, I'll put it in. Like I was saying I really hope an aftermarket tool like win98 lite comes out for XP. That would be great. Remove the firewall and any bundled tools you don't use and it could be cool except for the extra hardware requirments. IP: Logged
semmern Pilot	posted 10-29- 07:02 AM A friend of mine got Xp yesterday, I installed it for him. It looks very cool, and has some nice features. But, he has a PIII-600 with 128mb Ram, and a GeForce 2 of some sort, and when we fired up Commmandos 2, it started chugging and pausing and running really slow, even on the lowest screen res. So as long as XP degrades the performance of PCs, it's Windiws 98 for me. IP: Logged
Snickers Pilot	posted 10-29- 09:35 AM quote: Originally posted by Spanky the Mad Dog: What do you do Snick? I work for a company that (among other things) makes the system responsible for reporting tis info to the air quality district... I have also worked in robotics and automation. The actual title is "Controls Engineer". But that covers a wide multidude of sins . BTW - This is the same thing DJH does! The other thing I do is constantly make typos.. . IP: Logged
Spanky the Mad Dog Pilot	posted 10-29- 12:07 PM Ah ok. Wacky stuff. So other OSes and software is a viable option for your customers then? A friend of mine works installing and servicing automotive equipment like hoists/lifts, alingment machines and now emmisions testing machines. All the PC based machines run windows but run the main software as the shell program so you never see and can never get at windows. I'm wondering why the company continues to pay for windows licences instead of basing its software off something like linux which is cheaper or free. IP: Logged
ArgonV JAG	posted 10-29- 02:51 PM Semmern, that because of the OpenGL driver I bet. There were reported problems of games running OpenGL having problems under WinXP with GeForce cards. But Ive heard in many places that the latest GeForce drivers fix that problem. IP: Logged
Snickers Pilot	posted 10-29- 06:01 PM quote: Originally posted by Spanky the Mad Dog: I'm wondering why the company continues to pay for windows licences instead of basing its software off something like linux which is cheaper or free. Thats easy. There is more software written for Windoze than Linux. While ny customers do indeed have the choice of OS, (usually dictated by us) we dont always have access to software that will perform the same feature set on Linux or Unix on Mac as the software available for Windows.... IP: Logged
Spanky the Mad Dog Pilot	posted 10-29- 06:45 PM Yeah I get what you mean but the software made for alingment and emmisions testing machines is probly custom made for that machine, so they could write it for linux. They probly just don't care cause the cost gets passed onto the customer anyways. You should see how much they charge for the PCs, its INSANE. IP: Logged
Snickers Pilot	posted 10-30- 09:10 AM Our application is custom made. The sw used to build our app however, only runs on Windows . IP: Logged
ArgonV JAG	posted 10-30- 11:57 AM Had a chance yesterday to play around with WinXP on a Best Buy showcase computer. I must say Im very impressed! Nice features, cool layout and graphics and it seemed darn stable. I couldnt run any games on it however... They wouldnt let me! I now cant wait for its arrival! I have another 5.3 Gig hard drive laying around, so I'll take my current 15.3 Gig operating system hard drive out and put this other one in. That way I wont screw up my Win98SE install. (I have 2 hard drives installed, one for games and one for OS. That way if/when I reformat, I only loose the OS and not the games/patches/demos etc...) IP: Logged
semmern Pilot	posted 10-30- 02:22 PM Argon, the last thing my friend did before upgrading to XP was to download the latest drivers for all his hardware, so I guess it's just an issue with the OS itself... Can't help getting a bit anti-Bill Gates after having been around here for a while . IP: Logged
Blind Faith Pilot	posted 10-30- 04:08 PM This is the tool I use to give 6 different personalities to my current PC. This includes XP pro, LINUX, netware, ... and my trusted 98SE . I also use the 2 HD trick for constant access to the ecsential. (XP will make it C: and use another letter for itself). http://www.startech.com/ststore/itemdetail.cfm?product_id=snt127a ...to me it is worth the expense! Have fun! [This message has been edited by Blind Faith (edited 10-30-2001).] IP: Logged
Major Hippie Pilot	posted 10-30- 04:47 PM I put XP Pro on my new system & it runs great! wy better at managing my system ram a such, I've ran it for 5 days with out a reboot! my system is a Dell 8100 Geforce 3 512mb ram 2-40gig HDDs but on older systems it may not be the way to go.... hip63 ------------------ ...remember always fly HIGH!!! http://groovygalaxy.50megs.com/psychedelicsquadron.html IP: Logged
charmstar Pilot	posted 10-31- 03:32 PM What I like about XP: 1) Its more stable than Win9X 2) Remote Desktop (it lets you use your XP machine (if its on the net) from another one, like Win2k terminal server) another cool feature is the remote assistance. If you have parents or whoever always trying to get you to fix their computer, this is a godsend. It lets you take control of their desktop (with their permission) remotely, so you can fix whatever without having to do the whole thing on the phone, "Now go to the little picture of the face with 3 eyes, and click it two times fast..." charm IP: Logged
Lothar Pilot	posted 11-02- 08:32 PM http://www.infoworld.com/articles/tc/xml/01/10/29/011029tcwinxp.xml Our tests of the multitasking capabilities of Windows XP and Windows 2000 demonstrated that under the same heavy load on identical hardware, Windows 2000 significantly outperformed Windows XP. In the most extreme scenario, our Windows XP system took nearly twice as long to complete a workload as did the Windows 2000 client. IP: Logged

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