Windows XP Home or Pro

Am considering on purchasing a new Dell desktop Dimension 8400 and am wondering which is the better operating system the Home or Pro. I have never used XP as I run Win 98SE on my laptop. I use 512 DSL now and have always had dialup before. I mainly email and do genealogy and photo work. Do not use the Office features much.

quickshot

 

Thanks for the link the reading will solve my dilemma. Thanks again

quickshot

 

Also keep in mind that some applications may not run in XP home.

 

Such as????

quickshot

 

Well, I know that SAS v9 (a statistical software) doesn't run on Home.
Of course there are some that don't run on either XP at all.
If you visit the webpage of a software, it says for which versions of winows it is compatible.

 

Quickshot - in addition to the feature comparison in the link PeteC gave you, a few more 'real world' thoughts.

XP-pro costs a little more so if the $$ are a major issue, you may want to go with Home even if it's not the best fit.

I suggest the Pro version if you have children/grandchildren/visitors who are likely to use the PC. Pro had a much wider range of security options so you can let them use the PC with less chance of bad things happening.

I have never used the home version so can't say first hand but I have read in a few places from folks who have that the pro version is a little faster and more stable.

You can run XP-pro and set it like a XP-home system. You cannot do the same with XP-home since it is basically XP with some pieces removed and others disabled. The pieces don't matter to some users and for them simply wouldn't be worth the extra money to buy Pro but ....