Yes. It’s a great stable program and worth the money
No. It’s a waste of money.
0voters
ok. What should I do? Currently use an illegal copy of XP. If I have to reinstall, I’ll be screwed. Pretty sure it won’t work. Anyway I want to build a new computer so I think that I’ll have to take the plunge and give Micro$oft my hard earned kuai and buy a legal full copy of XP pro. Don’t really want to do this though. And another thing is I can only seem to find XP pro Chinese.
I’ve halfassedly looked into Redhat Linux and it looks cool but honestly I’m only one step up from a beginner. I guess I’m worried that I won’t be able to do the things with Linux that I can with XP. I’m more Mac than Unix. I don’t think Linux is for me.
I guess getting XP pro in English is probably the answer. Where would one find a copy of this in Taichung?
Sorry for the rambling here. Was sort of thinking out-loud.
Thanks. Yeah I went to Computer Street tonight and I definitely will build a new pc so buying a new copy of XP pro seems like the intelligent thing to do here.
OEM is Original Equipment Manufacturer, or something.
Basically an OEM version is one that shops that put computers together use. Usually comes without a box, might say “only for sale with a new computer” on it.
What’s wrong with XP Home ? does XP Pro have some feature you need ?
OEM is a basic license and CD that is supposed to be sold only with “new hardware” but shops will dodge this by selling you a US$1.50 cable with it. This is usually the cheapest way to get legal with XP. A full retail copy of XP Pro is $300, the upgrade retail is $200 and the OEM full version is about $130-140. The OEM version comes only with CD, the authenticity sticker with the serial number, and a very slim booklet. The retail version come with a larger manual which is just about as useless, and a pretty box also.
As to why XP Pro versus Home, it offers more secure filesharing, remote desktop, and NTFS instead of FAT for the filesystem. If that doesn’t do anything for you, get just the basic Home version.
Do you know what the difference between a basic license that an OEM XP offers and the license that a full version XP would offer?
So by assuming that there isn’t much difference between a basic OEM license and the license of a full version, why would anyone bother shelling out the extra cash for a useless manual and a pretty box?
What are the advantages of buying a full version?
I don’t know, you ever used a computer that was running Windows ME and then used a computer running Windows 2000 Professional? Personally I couldn’t believe that those two operating systems came from the same company let alone were released at the same time.
To me using Windows XP home would be like choosing Windows ME over Windows 2000 pro because I could save a few bucks. I’d like to think of the extra cash as an investment into my future mental health.
[quote=“Hans Castorp”]So by assuming that there isn’t much difference between a basic OEM license and the license of a full version, why would anyone bother shelling out the extra cash for a useless manual and a pretty box?
What are the advantages of buying a full version?[/quote]
There is no difference except that you can walk into a store and buy the retail version off the shelf whereas the OEM version is harder to get because it is only supposed to be sold with a computer.
I was thinking all this talk is going nowhere. Let’s just submit this whole thread to Microsoft and let them decide what should happen. What do you say?
Thanks Bassman. Though I think we all know what they would think about this. I have been doing some research on the whole issue and I couldn’t believe what I found. If you change your computer too much through upgrades you actually have to phone Microsoft and plead with them to let you use the copy of windows that you bought. If they say, “no” then you’ll have to shell out again for the program. I’m beginning to see why some many people are so pissed off with how Microsoft does business.
[quote=“Hans Castorp”]Thanks Bassman. Though I think we all know what they would think about this. I have been doing some research on the whole issue and I couldn’t believe what I found. If you change your computer too much through upgrades you actually have to phone Microsoft and plead with them to let you use the copy of windows that you bought. If they say, “no” then you’ll have to shell out again for the program. I’m beginning to see why some many people are so pissed off with how Microsoft does business.
Hans[/quote]
Huh?
I really don’t understand.
Wait… we are talking about MS here so maybe I am not meant to understand.
He’s talking about the Windows Activation thingy, It checks the hardware to make sure it’s running on the same computer, If you change the video card, it will forgive you, but if you then change the processor and motherboard it might tell you to feck off for installing it on another computer.
