XP PRO vs Home

i was just wondering what the difference was if any.

Software Installation and Maintenance – automatically install, configure, repair, or remove software applications.

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that kinda confuses me, so otherwise, i've always used XP PRO, but i was just looking at buying a home edition cd with key, cause it was real cheap, and that way my other machine would be legit. Although i'll prolly put linux on it anyways. But what would be any differences i would notice.

If you're in a single-user environment with a single CPU, not much at all. They're both NT5.1, just one has more features disabled than the other. If you're planning on installing it on a multi-CPU or multi-core system though, Home will only recognize one since it's basically crippleware. If you don't miss any of the features listed in the comparison, Home would be fine for you.

Of course, I advocate non-Windows OS'es first and foremost, so if you can migrate away from MS, I say go for it. :) It'd be better in the long run.

yeah, i'm seriously considering it, its really only for running F@H internet browsing and that sort of thing, or if my other machine goes down. It was going to also be used for a planned lan party and some one without a machine, but that doesn't ever seem to work out. Yeah, probably some weekend i'll get linux on it, as soon as i have time, can be used as game server that way :D . But thats good info, i didn't know that about he multiple core not being recognized in Home.

I may be very wrong, but is it not possible to download the extra bits that Home does not have.

the only reason i say this is because at work we have a couple of older machins i wanted to remote desktop, they are both on win ME but i was just able to download the bits i needed from the microsoft site and it all worked.

is it the same for MS Home?

prob not

Yeah, i didn't know about the dual core recognition that was only in pro, thats kinda a big deal to me. The only other thing would be the network related stuff. Honestly i don't really have any time to mess around with anything rate now, but thanks for the info, i'll look around