bit-tech Shopping: Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Rating: 10

Time with product:

Strengths: Xp Pro is the most stable OS I've ever used. It is still the Computer and Gamer Techie's first choice.

Weaknesses: No Direct X10 support, yet.

Summary: I've been building gaming machines for years. For gaming and rock solid computing without a lot of useless eye-candy; this is the OS to buy. Vista is due for major upgrades and service packs.

Rating: 6

Time with product:

Strengths: flashy, has most current drivers,installs fast on a decent computer,express vista upgrade, fairly stable

Weaknesses: SERIOUS ACTIVATION PROBLEMS,

Summary: What you get when you order Windows XP Professional SP2 is exactly what you would expect. Nothing more. But maybe less. First lets start with the pros and get them out of the way so you can see what winXP is really about.First, Windows XP Pro is flashy especially if you are coming from Windows 2000 or sooner. Also if you bought your hardware in the last 5-10 years Windows XP Pro probably has your driver, which is always nice. There is a compatibility mode if your are running programs from Windows 2000 or sooner and it works pretty well. Overall it is fairly stable.Now on to the cons. Here is something that makes some people give up and go to Linux. First of all, when you buy this product they (Microsoft) expects you to install it on only one computer. It might let you do it on two but after that you have used up all your licenses.If you rebuild your computer, you will have to reactivate. And after 2 times of activating, you MUST call Microsoft and do activation over the phone.If that is not enough, if you change your network card, you will most likely have to reactivate. Change motherboard, cpu, network card, or even restore a backup of your computer, and you will be making a call to Microsoft. YOu would think that the Professional edition would not require you to activate.....