Aaron <kem_tek.RemoveThis@hotmail.com> writes:
>I am looking at using income tax refund $$ to finance a new
>computer. One of them I am looking at has choices of Win XP
>Home, Pro, or Media Center, or no OS just formatted HD. Are
>there advantages to having the manufacturer's installed
>version of WinXP, or would a formatted HD that I put WinXP
>on with a store bought disc be better?
>I am pretty sure WinXP Media Center is OEM only. Linux is
>tempting, but the wife would say "No 'experiments' with OUR
>computer". 8 (
>And the old computer is going to the daughter.
>Maybe a Mac???
Depends on what you want to do with the computer. Seriously.
If all you want it for is basic email and maybe some artistic type
tasks (video or music editing/compilation) a lot of people will
recommend a Mac. Downside is that the Mac is proprietary (read:
costs more), but it has some claim (although I don't give it as
much claim as do the True Macintosh Fanatics) to having a much
more intuitive interface. And while it's not immune from malware,
few virus writers are producing virus-laden programs for MacOS.
But...in a reversal from the environment a decade ago, most new software
(including games) is now appearing first on Windows platforms, and
often are never ported to the Mac. If you need application compatibility
with what you use at the office, and the office uses Windows, you
probably need to buy a Windows system. Similarly, if you will be
connecting to your office network (especially but not only if you
are doing so using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection,
you may have problems using a Mac.
I don't know what the current sales figures are, but in my own shop
(*very* heavy with tech-savvy engineers), in the early 1990s we
were about 60%+ Macintosh...but now the percentage is perhaps 4%.
(I'm certainly no fan of Micro$oft, but neither am I one of the
"Macintosh does everything right" crew.)
On the Windows flavor option: I've never used Windows Media Center,
so I can't directly comment on it. I have seen some notes that Microsoft
no longer requires vendors selling it to include a tuner with the
bundled hardware, so reportedly its price (assuming that you don't
want a tuner) isn't unreasonable.
As for XP Professional vs. Home: for *MOST* users running XP on a
personal machine, there isn't any need for the features that Professional
provides that are not in the Home version. In Home, for example, you
don't get the encryption feature (which has some extremely poorly-conceived
characteristics -- and that's a professional opinion), and you don't have
the ability to be joined to a Microsoft domain. (I run Profexxional on
all of the XP machines at my house...but I'm also running a domain
controller. I use the setup to try out some ideas for problems I work
on at the office, when I think of them at night.)
If you're buying a brand-name computer (and from experience I would
recommend Dell as the most user-friendly manufacturer) it's generally
cheaper to get the OEM distributions of Microsoft software (especially
Windows itself and the office-automation products such as Office or
Works) than it is to try to buy them on your own. The downside is that
when you buy OEM software this way it's legally tied to the computer
with which you bought it: it cannot be moved to a later system even
if you scrap the original computer.
As for Linux: it has a lot of advantages (and I run it on several
systems, inlcuding the one on which I'm typing this message). Despite
its many advantages, Linux in the raw is not particularly user-friendly;
one description of the entire UNIX family from a few years ago was
that it's "the Adventure game of operating systems." However, with
a bit of planning it's possible to have both Linux and Windows coexist
quite peacefully on the same system (again, this machine is an example).
If you're not comfortable with working at a rather low level in an
operating system, I wouldn't recommend using Linux on a computer
where you don't want to risk losing everything on the hard disk.
Joe Morris<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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