buying XP Home full version oem

[Polaris20]

You can't install ANY version of XP on more than one computer.

Yes, you can. Just not at the same time. The full version can be installed on different computers, i.e. you buy a new computer, you can use the full version on the new computer. Not the case with OEM, which can only be used on one computer (as many times as you want to reinstall on that particular computer).

There is NO benefit to the retail version other than the fancy box and the manual - Who reads the manual anyway?

Except that the license is transferrable to a new computer, which is a pretty big benefit, seeing as how in MS's eyes, new motherboard = new computer. So if you have an OEM version of Windows, and you get a new motherboard and reinstall that same OEM version, then technically you just violated the EULA. You may get away with reactivating it, but you're still in violation, according to MS.

Read the EULA sometime. I had to, for work. It's enlightening.

There may be tighter restrictions on # of harware changes for OEM vs. Retail, but I have never heard of it before.

Yup, really tight. One motherboard for OEM, and that's it.

 

[beezelbubba]

http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/activation_faq.mspx

That document makes me seriously reconsider upgrading!What a pain in the ass!

 

[NL5]

That document makes me seriously reconsider upgrading!What a pain in the ass!

It's really not that bad.

If your running 98 or ME, it is a HUGE step up.

 

[Havoc]

Read the EULA sometime. I had to, for work. It's enlightening.

Punished?

That document makes me seriously reconsider upgrading!What a pain in the ass!

Going once through those hoops (and those of others steering towards the same idiocy) was enough to make me change to linux. No more of that. This pc stays seldom longer than 3 months in the same config. Now I have at most a recompile to do.

 

[NL5]

Punished?



Going once through those hoops (and those of others steering towards the same idiocy) was enough to make me change to linux. No more of that. This pc stays seldom longer than 3 months in the same config. Now I have at most a recompile to do.

Your DAW is linux? I was running Mandrake before the DAW setup. Had to go back to winblows for the multitrack apps. I would LOVE to go back to linux.

 

[Polaris20]

Your DAW is linux? I was running Mandrake before the DAW setup. Had to go back to winblows for the multitrack apps. I would LOVE to go back to linux.

I am on Linux now, for DAW and everything else. Goodbye Windows. I run Fedora Core 1 for DAW (since it is supported by CCRMA) and Fedora Core 3 on my laptop for web stuff, Photoshop, and Office.

 

[Havoc]

Your DAW is linux? I was running Mandrake before the DAW setup. Had to go back to winblows for the multitrack apps. I would LOVE to go back to linux.

Go take a peek at http://sound.condorow.net/ see if there is anything you can use. There is no need to pay loads to have software (this only to goad some around into the trees ). Going to Planet CCRMA is the fastest way to have access to most important audio applications in a more or less foolproof way.

To be before all the comments that will come:
no, it isn't perfect yet,
no, there is no cubase/nuendo/sonar,
yes, you will have to learn new applications (and sometimes wish they did something different),
yes, you can surf the web without IE, without anti-virus and without firewalls
yes, this post is becoming too much OT.

 

[beezelbubba]

Go take a peek at http://sound.condorow.net/ see if there is anything you can use. There is no need to pay loads to have software (this only to goad some around into the trees ). Going to Planet CCRMA is the fastest way to have access to most important audio applications in a more or less foolproof way.

To be before all the comments that will come:
no, it isn't perfect yet,
no, there is no cubase/nuendo/sonar,
yes, you will have to learn new applications (and sometimes wish they did something different),
yes, you can surf the web without IE, without anti-virus and without firewalls
yes, this post is becoming too much OT.

I don't mind it being off topic!I'd like to know more about linux!Is this only for computer geeks,or could a morno like me use it?

 

[Havoc]

I'd like to know more about linux! Is this only for computer geeks,or could a moron like me use it?

Difficult to say without knowing anything what you know about pc's or what you want to achieve. If the rest doesn't care I'll ramble a bit about it, otherwise some moderator just has to split it off.

It isn't as easy as turning on a pre-installed pc with windows and installing your favorite application. You will likely need to know a bit about what is inside your pc. Things like what cpu, what make of videocard, what make and type of motherboard etc. If you are at ease with installing a windows pc from scratch and don't care about swapping hard disks and soundcards you can do it. It helps to be a geek, but with choosing the right distro (pre-packaged linux collection) you can do it if you are prepared to spend some time on it. Some things will be more difficult, like support for you digital camera. And some things are impossible, like dsp audiocards like uad and powercore.

If you choose one of the friendlier distros with an easy package management there is not much difference between linux and windows. Why don't you use a few typical linux applications that also run in windows to see what is around...
openoffice: http://www.openoffice.org/
audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
gimp: http://www.gimp.org/

A good start would be to download the Knoppix live cd http://www.knoppix.org/ and play a bit with that. It let you boot linux without installing anything on your pc so you can't do anything wrong (if you don't deliberatly try). If you decide you like what you see/feel, then first check if there isn't someone around you that uses linux and is prepared to help you. Check if his/her distro would suit you and if it supports your hardware. Otherwise, go with Planet CCRMA or Agnula.

 

[Alexbt]

Oh, it's not that hard. If you get it setup properly, it might be great for you. Defintely more stable for recording in my book.

 

[NL5]

Difficult to say without knowing anything what you know about pc's or what you want to achieve. If the rest doesn't care I'll ramble a bit about it, otherwise some moderator just has to split it off.

It isn't as easy as turning on a pre-installed pc with windows and installing your favorite application. You will likely need to know a bit about what is inside your pc. Things like what cpu, what make of videocard, what make and type of motherboard etc. If you are at ease with installing a windows pc from scratch and don't care about swapping hard disks and soundcards you can do it. It helps to be a geek, but with choosing the right distro (pre-packaged linux collection) you can do it if you are prepared to spend some time on it. Some things will be more difficult, like support for you digital camera. And some things are impossible, like dsp audiocards like uad and powercore.

If you choose one of the friendlier distros with an easy package management there is not much difference between linux and windows. Why don't you use a few typical linux applications that also run in windows to see what is around...
openoffice: http://www.openoffice.org/
audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
gimp: http://www.gimp.org/

A good start would be to download the Knoppix live cd http://www.knoppix.org/ and play a bit with that. It let you boot linux without installing anything on your pc so you can't do anything wrong (if you don't deliberatly try). If you decide you like what you see/feel, then first check if there isn't someone around you that uses linux and is prepared to help you. Check if his/her distro would suit you and if it supports your hardware. Otherwise, go with Planet CCRMA or Agnula.

I just wanted to throw out a vote for knoppix as well. It's a great way to test-run linux, without making a SINGLE change to your comp. Just burn it, and boot it from the cd-drive.

I really liked linux, and only went back to MS because of DAW app's. Im gonna check out all the suggestions above, and maybe go back. Whooo Hooo!

 

[RWhite]

I don't know why you are bothering with New Egg. Go to CompUSA or any other big retailer and you can find Win XP Home, boxed retail with media, for $99. XP Pro is $199. As far as I know those prices have not changed since XP was released.

 

[Polaris20]

Planet CCRMA is by far the best audio solution for Linux I've seen. Fedora Core 1 is basically Red Hat 10 (the name change happened 2 months before FC1's release; the only changes were logos and such) and it will be even sweeter when Fransisco (I think that's the guy's name) gets the FC2 bugs rolled out, because that's a jump from kernel 2.4 to 2.6 (better latency performance). Plus, FC2 supports SATA out of the box, without drivers.

I don't miss Windows, for the most part. With Crossover Office still running MS Office for work/school, and Dreamweaver and Photoshop, I've got everything covered.

And I am free to not have to worry about disinfecting my PC all the time.

 

[Havoc]

because that's a jump from kernel 2.4 to 2.6 (better latency performance)

All I have heard so far is that the 2.4.x series with a low latency patch is still better than 2.6.x. I run both a gentoo 2.4 and 2.6 (on different pcs) but the 2.6 has more problems so far, like I can't get Jack running without lots of clicks and cracks.

 

[Smurf]

Linux....

I am running the Demudi audio distro http://www.agnula.org/ on a separate partition and really like it. The 2.4 kernal is much better than 2.6 at this point in time. But there are 2 things holding me back from going to the "other side" at the moment...

1. There is no easy way to load and use sound fonts that I can find (and I mean a decent GUI for something like Fluidsynth)

2. I don't like Gnome!

I would not put XP on any machine I build (building computers for 10 years). I stopped at 2000, and started looking at Linux really hard (been an off and on linux user since RH6) The one advantage to XP is that I keep making money fixing M$ OS's, which in turn funds my music habit!

 

[Havoc]

2. I don't like Gnome!

That's the fun of linux. Just put KDE or fwwm or icewm or any other windowmanager you like on it.

 

[beezelbubba]

I would not put XP on any machine I build (building computers for 10 years). I stopped at 2000, and started looking at Linux really hard (been an off and on linux user since RH6) The one advantage to XP is that I keep making money fixing M$ OS's, which in turn funds my music habit!

I went ahead and bought XP sp1(oem) and an 80 gig Maxtor.Any advice before I install?
I did a little browsing about Linux but it's beyond me!I don't speak the language you people are speaking.I do intend to do some reading for future reference,'cause it sounds cool!

 

[Polaris20]

The 2.4 patch better than 2.6 for latency? Perhaps, but I've so far had the best luck with 2.6 personally, and FC3 also recognizes my SATA controller right away, without having to load the VIA drivers in the terminal.

Another vote for Knoppix......it's scary what you can do with it, from a security standpoint. Walk into a college, reboot, and sniff their network with Ethereal, sniff their wireless with Airsnort, and crack it with Nessus.

I didn't do anything like that, but it makes me re-evaluate security for where I work. After seeing what it can do, I disabled the "boot from CD" option in the BIOS, and password protected the BIOS.

Someone with less scruples than I could really do some damage with a free download and a .25 cent CD.

 

[Havoc]

I didn't do anything like that, but it makes me re-evaluate security for where I work. After seeing what it can do, I disabled the "boot from CD" option in the BIOS, and password protected the BIOS.

Someone with less scruples than I could really do some damage with a free download and a .25 cent CD.

Looks a bit like curing it from the wrong end. After all, some inventive person will find a way to boot without a CD. Like using a USB memory stick or a usb cdrom. Or just bring in a laptop. If your network isn't well protected from within, all the rest is band aid.

 

[beezelbubba]

Sorry to interupt your geek conference !I did the upgrade to XP on an 80 gig Maxtor.This is a major upgrade for me(from Win 98 on 30 gig Maxtor).A very pleasant experience so far.Nothing like reformating and reinstalling 98!I run a very modest set up(onboard AC97 sound,ATI 98 pro AGP,yada yada!)and where I used to have to install drivers,everything is working so far after initial instalation.I didn't have to monkey around w/Direct X to get Ntrack to work! cool!
Things seem to work very fast!I must maintain discipline and KEEP THIS MACHINE OFF THE INTERNET!