Posted on 01/04/2006 9:59:39 AM PST by ShadowAce
It's a little more than that because some of the pieces of Pro don't even get loaded onto the XP Home system.
There are instructions out there on the web that will show you how to modify an XP Home CD so that it installs as XP Pro (and loads everything needed), but you can only do this on a fresh install - you can't "change" an existing XP Home install to a XP Pro install without buying the XP Pro upgrade. (And I have upgraded a few systems from XP Home to XP Pro without any problems, using the retail XP Pro upgrade CD.)
There are also some issues with tricking XP Home into loading as XP Pro - namely, you will not be able to install future service packs because the license key will still be for XP Home and the SP2 and future installers will still think it is XP Home.
You can get around this also by "slipstreaming" SP2 into the modified XP Home install so it loads them both at the same time - but that won't help when/if SP3 comes out - you are looking at a total re-install again if you want move to SP3 and with your illegal XP Pro install.
Depending on how much your time is worth, in the long run it is just easier to pony up the $180 or whatever to get the XP Pro upgrade. I used to have time to screw around with stuff like this...
Yeah, you always see the same unhelpful boring responses on every one of these threads - "Get a Mac!" and "Get Linux!". Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk. OK, they were funny responses MAYBE once or twice. Now they are old and boring and a waste of bits.
Do the "Get a Mac" people really think that their little 3 word post is going to convince anyone to throw their whole system, apps, and data in the trash and run out and buy a Mac? A lot of us have reasons why we use Windows - for me, it's what makes me a living. It's not a toy to me like it is to some people, who could just switch on a whim.
And the Mac people seem to do a lot of looking down their noses at Windows/Microsoft, yet the Mac is even more proprietary platform! At least with Windows I can go to multiple sources to get my hardware. Apple is and always has been one of the most "closed" platforms out there, yet they seem to get a free pass on that.
Depending on how much your time is worth, in the long run it is just easier to pony up the $180 or whatever to get the XP Pro upgrade. I used to have time to screw around with stuff like this...
Or, you can save the $180 by using Linux. :-)
I agree with you about screwing around with that kind of stuff on my own time. I'm at the point now, where I just want my stuff to work. I don't have to be running the latest and greatest. As long as everything I need works, I'm a happy camper.
Then again, I am a computer god.
LOL! I always thought that about you, Laz.
yeah...Linux is awesome for uptime.
Two of my ancient, 200 mhz, 198 MB RAM boxes run 24/7 at work. Both run Debian Stable with KDE, Firefox (with Java and Flash plugins) and OpenOffice, installed from the Internet using 3 floppy disks.
The longest uptime so far for one of those boxes is 63 days. The only reason it's not longer is that I shut them down over holidays to save power.
I'm thinking of leaving just one running as long as possible to see how long it will take it to crash.
w3p10: zeugma $ uname -a SunOS w3p10 5.8 Generic_108528-14 sun4u sparc SUNW,UltraAX-i2 w3p10: zeugma $ uptime 12:41pm up 1196 day(s), 20:41, 1 user, load average: 0.01, 0.01, 0.02 w3p10: zeugma $ |
Not according to all the documentation HAL9000 keeps providing, and you keep denying.
Ha ha! And he finally makes his appeearance! Big hand for Buzzy!
Haven't seen you for a while. Thought maybe you spun yourself in little circles and fell asleep in the corner for a few weeks.
Still giving your money to the ChiComs, Buzzy?
Dude, you need to lay off whatever it is you're on. I'm against tech exports to China, as everybody knows.
Yeah. That's why you fund them with your money.
P. S. - Did you ever figure out that sam_paine was NOT complimenting you?
I think you've just described why Linux will never catch on. Linux is for hobbyists. The same kind of people who would restore an old car from scratch when it would be easier to just buy one finished.
Most people just want their computer to work, out of the box. Period. And Microsoft provides that. Powerful programs that are easy to use.
These 'most' people don't want to build the thing, they don't want to program it, they don't want to have to figure out how to find a myriad of freeware programs and drivers and they don't want to know what ~root~ is. They want to turn it on, and follow very simple instructions.
ping
you now = me four years ago.
I was excited about Linux, but struggled to figure it out.
I learned the most about Linux when I installed it on a dedicated box just to play around with, without the worry that I was going to mess anything up. Mepis made things a lot easier, too...it's really configured with less savvy users in mind. And of course, Google.
My advice...find an old computer with at least 500 mhz worth of processor and more than 128 mb of ram, put MepisLite on it, and play around for a while.
Now, I prefer to use Linux over Windows, and probably use it for 80-90% of my computing.
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