When someone comes to eat me alive, well I like to see their teeth

[venta]

So, here I am just trotting off to bed when I remember that I meant to post some questions here. They're not my questions, but they're questions which have been asked of me recently and I've either not had anything terribly interesting to say, or not known the answer.


What is the difference between the various versions of Windows XP ? What does the Media Center Edition do that the Professional Edition or the Home Edition doesn't ? Or what doesn't it do that they do ? I've found a few pages which are full of marketing fluff and little meaning - can anyone actually define any known concrete differences ?

Has anyone ever used M$ Works, in particular its spreadsheet program ? Are there any limitations to it (compared to Excel), in particular on the maximum width/height of spreadsheets, or compatibility with Excel files ?

And the other question. Which was important. But I've forgotten it. Bonus points if you can answer it anyway.


The last enquiry isn't so much as a do-you-know-the-answer question as a request for feedback. You, yes you, could be the voice of the younger generation because my mother wants to know what said generation thinks about buying winter clothes.

Apparently some shops (like Next) are saying that the biggest effect anything had on their sales this season was the cold snap in Novemeber. Apparently everyone suddenly thought "shit, it's winter, I'd better buy a jumper" all at once. I certainly remember a conversation with a friend around then in which he expressed a requirement for warm clothes. "I have no memory of throwing out all my warm clothes last year," he said "but it looks like I just have done".

I, being very boring, simply raked the stack of jumpers out the back of the wardrobe. Fashion, you say ? What's that ?

So, did anyone feel compelled to go out and buy winter clothes in November ? Do you chuck away winter clothes at the beginning of spring ? If you know you need a nice new coat for winter do you start looking in Autumn, or do you wait til it gets cold ? Were you forced into purchasing an inferior coat in a hurry because you'd been stuck looking for one you liked, but were outpaced by the weather ? Enquiring minds wish to know.

Comments

[condign.livejournal.com]

can anyone actually define any known concrete differences ?
I've had computers with all three installed. Media Center seems to be XP Home with slightly better networking components, easy integration with a variety of multimedia devices, and the ability to easily deal with IR remote controls. Other than that, it seemed like XP Home.

XP Home: Windows ME version 2.0.

XP Professional: The "real" version of XP. At my university, we're required to have XP Pro because (for reasons that seem a bit stupid) Novell's Netware client won't work with XP Home. As a result, anyone with Home can't see our network. (Home doesn't seem to have the resources to deal with professional networking environments.)

But I've forgotten it. Bonus points if you can answer it anyway.

Blue tinsel.

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Interesting: I thought that the difference between Home and Professional was in the interface provided to the components, but the componenets themselves were the same.

For example, there we had a conversation over on cardinalsin's journal before Christmas: both Home and Professional support Access Control Lists, but home doesn't provide any user interface to them. Which can work ok: the users can't create, use, or fall foul of incorrect ACLs. But the API support for them is still there, and if a piece of software sets up an ACL, it's extremely inconvenient to find out what it's done, and manage it.

[erming.livejournal.com]

As a c# developer there is one huge difference between xp home and (xp professional and xp media centre). XP home doesn't have iis (which you need for developing web apps locally) where as the other two do. XP media centre from what I gather off someone who owned it is xp professional with bolt on bits.

[chris1234.livejournal.com]

As I found out to my disadvantage, if you don't define the admin user name and the guest user name (or something), XP Home automatically sets them to have no password (or something trivial)... but - get this - makes them invisible from the login screen and only accessible to remote users.

This is only a vulnerability in XP Home.

Grumble, moan, whinge, still haven't gone to linux...

[waistcoatmark.livejournal.com]

XP Pro also
- supports multiple pocessors, Home is SMP only
- can be upgraded for free to 64-bit edition

Both of which are becoming increasingly important as we're moving to dual-core 64-bit processors.

[edling.livejournal.com]

XP Home: Windows ME version 2.0.
Hmm- maybe in terms of intended market it is, but they're quite different in terms of tech- WinME was basically an update of 95/98, and all versions of WinXP use the same kernel (developed from the Win2K line).
From my trusty copy of XP in a Nutshell, it seems that the biggest differences are:

• XP Pro is much more flexible about user permissions, and allows users with limited rights to be set up. XP Home just gives all users admin rights.


• XP Pro has multiple processer support.


• XP Pro knows how to join an NT Domain, Home just supports peer to peer networking.


• XP Pro had a load of utilites for various adminy things that XP Home doesn't

Basically, XP Home is a bit of a gimped version of Pro that has a bunch of stuff removed because Microsoft throught they wouldn't be required for home users and might scare them.
I don't know a lot about Media Center edition, but from a bit of grepping around it looks like it's designed for their networked home idea, and might not be available to the general public unless it's pre-installed. Looks like it's mainly got more support for media-type peripherals like remotes, TV cards etc.

[condign.livejournal.com]

Hmm- maybe in terms of intended market it is, but they're quite different in terms of tech

Sorry, I think my meaning was unclear. I understand and appreciate the technical difference. Mine was more of a user-level gripe: ME was an operating system that was buggy, hid necessary controls from the user, and simply wasn't as good as other operating systems out there. It was a horrible annoyance that should never have been inflicted on anyone. XP Home is a different technology, but similarly annoying (if less so). XP Professional is a way of charging $100 more for the software that everyone should have.

Or put another way: different technology, same bad idea.

[edling.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I think my meaning was unclear. I understand and appreciate the technical difference.
I suspected you did :)- I was just elucidating for the benefit of anyone else that wasn't clear. I completely agree on ME being a nasty piece of work- I've got a friend who's PC I occasionally have to fix, and every time I got near it I'm reminded quite how painful it is. I've not had the misfortune to have to do anything on XP Home, mainly because when I was getting an OS I looked at what it didn't do and decided it'd annoy me too much, and no-one goes near it at work. Agree completely (again) that Pro is just a way of charging unmore to ungimp your OS, but IMHO it's worth it (well, as worth it as any other MS product).

[broadmeadow.livejournal.com]

I believe MCE is based on XP professional, not home. It can only be bought in an OEM version, though anyone can buy it (so long as you buy some hardward at the same time - a mouse will do).

XP home replaces ME but is _not_ ME version 2 as it is based on NT technology.

IMO, XP Pro is only worth the extra money if you need the domain stuff or things like iis. The average home user does not need it (I include myself here, and my home network has 5 Win XP home machines and 2 debian Linux servers).

[condign.livejournal.com]

See comment above w/r/t the technology issue: the comparison to ME was more aesthetic than technical. (IMO ME was an abomination that should never have been made, and XP Home continues the trend: "Pro" should be the standard XP package bundled with home computers.)

Also in my experience, XP Pro is much more stable, particularly in environments where people will install a lot of software and then remove it. I've seen more screwed up XP Home registries...