XP Home vs. Pro vs. Embedded

[Lynn Fredricks]

> On 9/13/06, Stephen Barncard <stephenREVOLUTION at barncard.com> wrote:
> > This is the thing about Windows that I never could understand.
> > Can you imagine how users would revolt if Apple came out 
> with 'Mac OS 
> > Tiger Lite"?
> 
> I can't imagine Mac users ever revolting. Especially seeing 
> where they have to pay for a new 'cat' OS with minimal new 
> features every 12-18 months without as much as a sigh. I 
> guarantee Windows users would NOT put up with that. Hell, 
> they have a hard time stomaching a Vista release, which will 
> be coming out 4+ years after XP.

My feeling is that the numbering was never correct. It should have been New
Mac .5, New Mac .7, New Mac 1.0, New Mac 1.5. The point updates strike me as
a huge disservice. When SJ re-took the helm, he said it would take MacOS X
three revs to be where he thought it should be. Underneath, there were huge
changes, many which broke software again and again or introduced a few
creative fixes. Vendors take it on the chin too, because users assume that
whats underneath has not been radically changed (3.9 to 4.0?) - so it must
be the vendor's fault, right?

I work on XP Pro all day and Im so glad they did take a long time between
paid for versions. Ive gotten a lot of fixes, esp vs vulnerabilities, and
you know they will continue to patch for several years to come. Actually, I
take that partially back - the SP 1 to SP 2 jump was not without some
issues.


> Microsoft knows they can charge Enterprise more $$$ than 
> individual users, and that's why there's an XP Pro vs Home. 
> Originally, there were some significant differences, like Pro 
> was supposed to only have multiple monitor support, but after 
> the MS users complained during XP beta, they ratcheted down 
> the feature differences significantly.
> Unless you really need multiple workgroup domains or Desktop 
> Remote Access, (available in free 3rd party tools), you only 
> need Home.

I think home was a necessity to keep a cheap OEM version out there. If you
are in a large corporate environment, all the remote stuff is a necessity.
But it will get even dicier with Vista.

I don't use my Mac very much but I will say this - it makes for a very nice
machine for playing World of Warcraft :-)

Best regards,


Lynn Fredricks
Worldwide Business Operations
Runtime Revolution, Ltd