How many of you are software name snobs

[ikonia]

How many of you buy products you don't need/understand or even want as a status symbol

eg: bought XP pro because they didn't want to be an XP home user even though they never participate in a domain

Or don't want to by vista home because then they won't be "ultimate"

Its anonymous so I'd be interested in knowing

[0iD]

I have xp pro & ultimate as i'm after the functionality they have. I'm more for useability & function over brand name. I have no probs paying for say Nod32 because it does the job well.
Just as well as the Gimp is good at what it does & free.

[ikonia]

I can appriciate the functionality differences in vista - hence the price differences.

Curious to what was extra in XP that you needed

[aidanjt]

XP Pro has a much more refined permissions system, while it doesn't appeal to the average home user, I prefer running every day applications with the minimum required permissions without fiddling around.

[Lee H]

Well I've a pile of OS discs that are all related to 1 of the systems at home.

I've got XP home, XP Pro, and MCE2005 and have flitted between them all before I resorted to using MCE2005 again due to it's extra connectivity for the xbox360 console system.

However, I happily use free software over standard 'pay for' software and scour sourceforge all the time for new exciting programs.

Next up is more hard-drives for vista and some other various freebie operating systems like unbuntu

[Splash]

Vista Ultimate and XP Pro on my machines at home for domain support. I was originally planning on getting Vista Business but the price difference for OEM meant it was worth paying the little extra for the Media Centre functionality.

[Kezzer]

I have xp pro & ultimate as i'm after the functionality they have. I'm more for useability & function over brand name. I have no probs paying for say Nod32 because it does the job well.
Just as well as the Gimp is good at what it does & free.

Yes but functionality is dependant on what you need. You can't say "I want the most functionality out of x product" when you don't even need it.

I have a copy of XP Home for my laptop and XP Pro on my main desktop and there's a few things in XP Pro which are things I personally use which don't exist in XP Home. I think there's only one thing actually

I'll think more logically when it comes to Vista though.

[Sinizter]

I am usually quite happy with buying what I need ... occasionally I have the urge to get a higher version which wont see its full potential used.

E.g. I upgraded my laptop to XP Pro ... I thought I might end up on a domain at some point, but that never happened and I guess would have been just fine with XP Home.

Vista Home Premium seems like something I could live with, but some features of Ultimate do seem appealing. Obviously I dont know if I will use all those features until I actually get a copy of Ultimate to try.

[Splash]

Can I be the first to say that the Ultimate Extras in Vista are a tad disappointing, and I don't use EFS as I don't really need it. Out of interest what features of Ultimate appeal to you Sinizter? Serious question.

[Clunk]

I bought XP home when it came out and used it ever since.

[htid]

Same as Clunk

[Sinizter]

Out of interest what features of Ultimate appeal to you Sinizter? Serious question.

Its a good thing you asked me that question.

I looked more closely at the options and it seems like that Vista Business is unsuitable for me as I would like the option of Media Center thingy.

There was a backup feature in Ultimate which looked good (not available in Home Premium) and BitLocker.

I guess I could live without either of those without any major problem.

Then there is Remote Desktop Connection in Ultimate. I would like to login to my home computer to do stuff (not make applications available on the laptop or anything, but to control its updates, stop/start downloads, etc). Not sure if I will be able to do this with the standard tools in Home Prem. But there are ways around that. Like using programs to do it + networking such as Hamachi.

Ultimate also allows domain networking - dont currently need it. But I might in the future.

So basically in summary I think I will be perfectly fine with Home Prem (with maybe some adjustments). And if I really feel that I need ultimate, I can always upgrade at a later time if I dont get on with Home Prem.

I am going to off and get myself Home Prem now.

Cheers

[MadduckUK]

a lot of this depends on perspective. do you see:

1. the basic version as having features removed
2. the ultimate version as having features added

i see option 1.

[ajbrun]

I've ticked yes, because in all honesty, the only 'ultimate' feature in vista ultimate that I actually use are the extras, and out of those, so far, it's only dreamscene, which I can easily live without.

[dave87]

XP Pro, only because of the remote desktop functionalities, which make working at home a lot easier.

Having said that, for the rest of my family, XP Home (mainly cause they wouldn't know what to do with the advanced features, and would probably bugger em up anyway...)

[badass]

I refuse to have anything to do with XP home. I hate it, mainly becaise of simple file sharing, and a desire to not use cacls.
That said, I extensively use remote desktop so need XP pro.