Cheapest, Safest Place to buy Win XP?

[TheSith]

Hey guys,

I'd like to purchase a version of XP that will work with Boot Camp for the least amount of money - don't care about Home vs Pro.. but I do want to purchase from a safe site/store. I see versions from PriceGrabber at about $65 for the full version - is this reliable? does anyone have any reliable sites to purchase from?

Thanks

 

[SkyBell]

$65? I dobut it. I think they sell UPGRADES for like $199. Maybe I just don't know my prices very well, but that sounds a little fishy to me.

 

[slackersonly]

outpost has been selling XP Home OEM for about $89 for a long time.

 

[SkyBell]

I need to keep that in mind...

 

[Ladybug]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16832116169

$89.99 with a Vista upgrade coupon if you're interested. I don't know if this is the cheapest but its a very safe site to order from.

 

[puckhead193]

whats the difference between home and professional...

 

[psycoswimmer]

whats the difference between home and professional...

Networking. Professional has better networking, as far as I know. And it costs more.

Really, they're pretty much the same exact thing, unless you really need networking.

 

[YoNeX]

$20 or Free if you are a student of a school who belongs to the Microsoft Developers Network Academic Alliance (MSDNAA)

http://www.msdnaa.net/search/SchoolSearch.aspx?/

Otherwise, about $80 is the lowest you will find for a legitatimte XP Home (OEM copy)

 

[puckhead193]

guess i'll ask for santa for it as well as a few PC games or just wait till MWSF and see what happens with Leapord and get an I.O.U

 

[balamw]

Networking. Professional has better networking, as far as I know. And it costs more.

Really, they're pretty much the same exact thing, unless you really need networking.

There are a few other things besides network related stuff. Most of these are security related, Pro allows for much finer setting of access rights than Home and it also allows for encrypted filesystems.

B

 

[ceruleanventure]

If you attend college, perhaps they sell it at the bookstore relatively cheaply. I got a copy of XP Professional for $4 simply because the college has a deal with Microsoft. All I had to do was sign a form and show them my college ID, no probs...I don't know your age (sorry) but I thought it might be worth a shot

 

[dsnort]

Networking. Professional has better networking, as far as I know. And it costs more. .

I read somewhere that only XP Pro was set up to handle dual processor cores. Could be wrong though, anyone else know the true skinny?

 

[balamw]

I read somewhere that only XP Pro was set up to handle dual processor cores. Could be wrong though, anyone else know the true skinny?

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/192370/

Home works for 1 processor, including multi-cores and HyperThreaded CPUs which present themselves as having 2 cores.

Pro is only required for more than one processor.

[Posted from XP Home on my iMac which clearly shows two cores enabled.]

B

 

[SMM]

XP Pro and XP Home come from completely different family trees.

Windows 95, 98, ME, Windows XP Home
Windows NT 3.51, NT 4, Windows 2000 Pro, Windows XP Pro

I will admit it has been quite awhile since I looked at the 'Home' edition. So, you might want to verify this. I do not think XPH supports NTFS, but only FAT32. XPH does not have many of the administrative and system tools XPP does. Others have touched on the networking and security. XPH does not have many of the advanced network features of XPP, such as Terminal Service Client.

Actually, I am sure you can iSearch the differences and decide for yourself. XPH is definitely not a feasible OS for a business (although some small ones use it).

I think the two distinct lineage's are finally melding under Longhorn. It looks like MS is going to have a single kernel and exploit everyone by what features you get.

 

[jaw04005]

XP Pro and XP Home come from completely different family trees.

Windows 95, 98, ME, Windows XP Home
Windows NT 3.51, NT 4, Windows 2000 Pro, Windows XP Pro

I will admit it has been quite awhile since I looked at the 'Home' edition. So, you might want to verify this. I do not think XPH supports NTFS, but only FAT32. XPH does not have many of the administrative and system tools XPP does. Others have touched on the networking and security. XPH does not have many of the advanced network features of XPP, such as Terminal Service Client.

Actually, I am sure you can iSearch the differences and decide for yourself. XPH is definitely not a feasible OS for a business (although some small ones use it).

I think the two distinct lineage's are finally melding under Longhorn. It looks like MS is going to have a single kernel and exploit everyone by what features you get.

Wow. You are so wrong, I don't know where to start. Microsoft based XP Home and Pro off of the NT kernel. Both operating systems support NTFS, and like others have said ... the primary differences between the two versions are 1) advanced networking support and 2) support for multiple processors (cores are irrelevant).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP

 

[balamw]

For more Home vs. Pro differences check here: http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_home_pro.asp

XP finally realized the merging of the kernels between Home and Pro editions of Windows, but still many of the things that were planned for "Cairo" aren't even in Vista and some will probably remain 3 years out forever...

B

 

[atmenterprises]

XP Pro has IIS installed.

 

[balamw]

XP Pro has IIS installed.

While IIS is not included or supported on XP Home, it does actually work and you can Google for the installation procedure.

B

 

[elppa]

Will XP home take advantage of both cores on a Core Duo.

I am a little confused as to who it right.

 

[balamw]

Will XP home take advantage of both cores on a Core Duo.

I am a little confused as to who it right.

Yes.

Microsoft.

B

 

[mkrishnan]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16832116169

$89.99 with a Vista upgrade coupon if you're interested. I don't know if this is the cheapest but its a very safe site to order from.

Does the Vista coupon mean that the copy of Vista is free, or that it comes at a discount (and if the latter, do you happen to know what the price would end up being?).

I guess though that the whole buying Vista thing is somewhat on hold for me until I know what's going to happen with the Vista Home not being allowed to run in a virtualized environment issue....

 

[balamw]

I guess though that the whole buying Vista thing is somewhat on hold for me until I know what's going to happen with the Vista Home not being allowed to run in a virtualized environment issue....

I think that ship has sailed. MS seems pretty clear that they don't want you to run Vista Home Basic/Premium in a virtualized environment. You'll need Business or Ultimate, and even then they don't want you running DRMed media while in the VM, which rules out a major use for Mac users.

Boot Camp or violate the EULA seem to be the only "good" Vista choices.

B

 

[mkrishnan]

Boot Camp or violate the EULA seem to be the only "good" Vista choices.

Yeah... I'm rather hoping that there will be a good site licensing deal that includes the upper versions of Vista here at my university.

 

[aaronfzr]

If you want a cheap version of Win XP (Home or Pro) why not go for an OEM edition? There are some subtle (but potentially important) licencing differences, and some on these boards may argue about the legitimacy of installing OEM software onto your mac. Do a search for further information & past threads to make up your own mind, but if you decide to do it you can buy OEM software from many legitimate vendors, including:

Newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?DEPA=0&type=&Description=XP+OEM&Submit=ENE&N=0&Ntk=all

Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-WIN...s_sr_1/002-0041746-5968856?ie=UTF8&s=software

Microdirect (UK):
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=9479

You can also find (apparently reliable, but you never know...) OEM vendors on Ebay.

Its a cheap solution, and in my opinion completely legal. But do your research, you could save yourself some decent biccies.