Vista or XP

cbrain said:

Hello!

I'm unsure whether to get XP or Vista.

These are the things I need to run:

MS Office
Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion
Age of Mythology (Not required but would be nice)


I am leaning towards Vista Home Premium.

These are my macs specs:

20inch iMac
ATI Radeon X1600
2.16gHZ Processor
1GB RAM
250gb Hard Drive

Thanks.

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Fry's has Vista Home Premium for $109 right now.

http://www.outpost.com/entry?site=op:mfe031406&sku=5119696

Personally I would go with XP. Vista is still in need or a couple of service packs before it can be considered finished, and you already have a next-gen OS in the shape of OSX. The rest of the world isn't going to move en masse to Vista for at least another 12 months. Let someone else take the early-adopter pain.

If you do go with Vista you're going to want more memory.

Yeah, XP would be fine. Your computer should be able to handle Vista, but....just don't get Vista, okay. If you do, they (M$) win.

Can vista run on the mac platform?

XP Home,

you don't really need professional for much of anything, it just has some extra features, but seeing that this isn't your primary OS it would seem a waste of money, but running vista on a secondary machine doesn't make sense and professional wouldn't either, home edition has suited me perfectly...

Quboid said:

Can vista run on the mac platform?

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Yes, in Boot Camp or Parallels.

Quboid said:

Can vista run on the mac platform?

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Vista doesn't really "run" on anything. It merely slowly, lethargically, walks along, screwing up everything in it's path

Make sure to buy an OEM copy of XP Home...one can be had for 90 bucks at Newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116056

100% legal, and about half the price of XP Home retail. You lose the pretty packaging, but save a lot of cash. And if you do want XP Pro, I think OEM is around $130.

yg17 said:

100% legal, and about half the price of XP Home retail. You lose the pretty packaging, but save a lot of cash. And if you do want XP Pro, I think OEM is around $130.

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You also become your own tech support, Microsoft won't help you with OEM issues since the company (or yourself in this case) becomes your primary tech support when you install.

thegoldenmackid said:

XP Home,

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Agreed, and for the same reasons.

Another derivation to this question.

I don't have a full-install disk of either XP Home or XP Pro. However, I do have an upgrade disk for XP Pro.

If I were to purchase an OEM version of XP Home from Newegg, etc. (since it is $50 less than XP Pro) and after installing the OEM XP Home on my MacBook, while I was in Windows (either Bootcamp or Parallels), would I be able to use my XP Pro upgrade disk to install XP Pro?

XP hands down if you need Windows. Vista is a hog and from all the Windows users and IT techs who have used it that I know, they have all complained about it and/or gone back to XP. If you just need a few programs, don't go anywhere near Vista.

Got with XP Home or XP Pro.

Stay away from Vista for now. Microsoft usually takes a couple of iterations to get it right (95 SR2, 98 SE, 2K SP4, XP SP2). Wait until Vista SP2 or whatever it is called is released.

Also, to run Vista on your system, you will need some more RAM. You current setup will run XP fine.

AZJayhawk said:

Another derivation to this question.

I don't have a full-install disk of either XP Home or XP Pro. However, I do have an upgrade disk for XP Pro.

If I were to purchase an OEM version of XP Home from Newegg, etc. (since it is $50 less than XP Pro) and after installing the OEM XP Home on my MacBook, while I was in Windows (either Bootcamp or Parallels), would I be able to use my XP Pro upgrade disk to install XP Pro?

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Sounds like you're trying to use the XP Pro twice, which would be a violation of your EULA. If the XP Pro license (or the 98 license you upgraded from) is not already in use and you have transfer rights, there are much easier ways to install straight from the Upgrade CD.

1) Use an external USB CD/DVD drive with your 98 CD for verification
2) Combine your 98 and XP Pro upgrade discs and install straight from that

yg17 said:

Vista doesn't really "run" on anything. It merely slowly, lethargically, walks along, screwing up everything in it's path

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FWIW I was actually impressed with how Vista ran on a new Dell Dimension 9200 2.4 GHz Conroe/4 GB RAM compared to other boxes I've seen/tried it on. Unfortunately, our IT department isn't ready to support it so we downgraded it to XP.

B