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 - Second Time GoI have worked with XP Pro for some time and can't say much bad. I guess i'm just patient. I am a network planner/maintainer and use XP Pro at home. The first copy that I bought didn't work. Kept getting a stop error. Notified Amazon and got another copy sent out within days of my submitting for the exchange online. Matter of fact I got my new copy before I even sent out the one that didn't work. So thumbs up to Amazon for that one. The operating system itself runs like a champ and was easy to install. I've not switched to Vista yet because i've read too many negatives and not enough posatives from general users to computer geeks who want a flawless machine that boots up in seconds and NEVER has issues. As for me, a typical daily user, I think it's top notch and won't go to Vista for several years if I can help it. Rating: - Software ReviewHaving a copy of Windows on PC, I needed an extra one to run on a Mac. So far, it works fine. Rating:  - Best Windows to date, but not the best OSCompared to previous versions of Windows (like Windows 98, Windows 2000, etc.), Windows XP is excellent. It's much more stable than those previous versions, has excellent hardware and software support, and generally is pretty good. But that's all relative: Mac OS X and Ubuntu linux (the latter being totally free) are both excellent in terms of usability, and frequently are easier to use for regular users. If you need a general-purpose desktop computer for web browsing, word processing, and so forth...Ubuntu's the ticket. Free, secure, wide community support, great hardware support, etc. It's quite usable by average users, and definitely not as "scary" as other versions of linux. Power users can run most Windows programs in Wine (I play World of Warcraft regularly in Wine and love it). But I digress... Unfortunately, Windows XP has it's downsides: - It's expensive. - It's vulnerable to a huge host of security issues (most are patched quickly, but it seems to be a never-ending process). - By default, it isn't all that secure -- user accounts are, by default, Administrators, so one can seriously screw up their system by fiddling around with stuff that they shouldn't be fiddling around with. Viruses that execute under an Administrator account have full access to the computer, and can cause significant damage. Internet Explorer and Outlook Express have more holes than swiss cheese. - Protecting against these security issues necessitates additional expenses like anti-virus/spyware programs. Fixing/cleaning up from virus infections can take hours, if it's possible at all. - Anti-piracy measures are ineffective at stopping piracy, but effective at annoying legitimate users. If you change more than a few hardware components (such as adding more RAM, installing a new graphics card, etc.) Windows disables itself and requires that you call Microsoft, explain what you did, and get an authorization code to re-enable Windows. In today's computing world, there are many specific programs that require Windows to operate. But just about any task that's required, such as word processing, web browsing, design, communication, and so forth is also available for the Mac OS or linux, and those systems are (in my opinion) quite a bit easier to learn, use, and interact with and have advantages of security, performance, and in the case of Ubuntu linux, price. Rating:  - I can't believe I own this piece of junk...I was raised with the understanding that "if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all," but Amazon prompted me for a review... so I feel the need to remind everyone what a terrible load of horse crap this Windows XP really is. I can't believe that so many people around the world suffer with it every day. I bought the "Professional FULL VERSION with SP2" to install as a 2nd system on my Intel Mac (so that I can author/test files I create in a PC environment). Yikes. How is this worth $[...]? I think Leopard is going to be $[...] Anyway, this isn't a very good review, but it isn't a very good operating system either. Rating: - A Necessary EvilGlad I use a MAC most of the time. Using Windows is like steping back in time 10 0r 12 years.
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