Is it worth moving to windows XP?

[dangel]

.

[poindextermatic]

so whats Mac like for games....?

[aidanjt]

Meh, more stuff runs (than linux) it's just slower (than XP)... Hardly shocking, i think the clue was in the word 'beta' DX10 should (on it's own) boost performance considerably as it's got some very good optimizations over DX9 in execution paths..

Well, the development emphasis in the opensource world is firmly on developing original, portable software rather than trying to run buggy/insecure Windows software which can’t be fixed even if wine was coded to perfection.

The idea is a windows replacement which offers freedom rather than a windows subsitute.

[pctechxp]

I personally wouldnt bother with XP Home

Pro has all the tools you are used to in 2000 (yep I was an XP Luddie for a long while and thought 2000 was the best thing since errrr, DOS but you have to move on)

[directhex]

I personally wouldnt bother with XP Home

Pro has all the tools you are used to in 2000 (yep I was an XP Luddie for a long while and thought 2000 was the best thing since errrr, DOS but you have to move on)

an insignificant proportion of home users need pro

do you *need* access to active directory domains for your desktop games box?

[aidanjt]

an insignificant proportion of home users need pro

do you *need* access to active directory domains for your desktop games box?

Well, I kinda agree, XP Pro does have much more refined ACL controls than Home, a lot of games require write access to their respective Program Files directory and making yourself admin just to run games is silly. It's slowly becoming less of a problem, but not all game engines respect multiuser systems.

[pctechxp]

yep good point DH.

I use pro on my home system as sometimes have to connect to servers at work via VPN when am off site.

As regards the games needing write access to program files I have found to my annoyance that most of the games I run wont operate without write access to PF (either wont start or give weird errors when saving).

[aidanjt]

yep good point DH.

I use pro on my home system as sometimes have to connect to servers at work via VPN when am off site.

As regards the games needing write access to program files I have found to my annoyance that most of the games I run wont operate without write access to PF (either wont start or give weird errors when saving).

Yea, that's a problem inherent with windows software still acting as if it's running on windows 98.. while you're in the user group you only have read access to program files.. the way i have things set up is i added a 'Games' group and gave that games group write access to a games software directory, (say C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft for e.g.) that need it.

As it stands, there's no ligit method of doing this on XP Home afaik.

[dangel]

Well, the development emphasis in the opensource world is firmly on developing original, portable software rather than trying to run buggy/insecure Windows software which can’t be fixed even if wine was coded to perfection.

The idea is a windows replacement which offers freedom rather than a windows subsitute.

buggy/insecure (games are insecure?) software isn't limited to Windows but that's not really the point - more that people expect a beta of a new OS to be as fast as it's precursor..

Still, yay for freedom!

[dangel]

Yea, that's a problem inherent with windows software still acting as if it's running on windows 98.. while you're in the user group you only have read access to program files.. the way i have things set up is i added a 'Games' group and gave that games group write access to a games software directory, (say C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft for e.g.) that need it.

As it stands, there's no ligit method of doing this on XP Home afaik.

That's squarely MS' fault - they should of never allowed people to run as admin by default and sorted out permissions properly. Vista will be their first attempt to fix that glaring problem (and in turn will create headaches for the development community used to Windows (in)security). Personally, I never install games on the system partition (it's busy enough as it is in there) but am well aware alot of people do as it's the default install path for pretty much anything.