New Build - Windows Questions

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DataMan

New Build - Windows Questions

Post by DataMan »

Getting ready to start a new PC build. Expect to have everything purchased and put together by late January.

I have a few "need apps" on the Windows side that necessitate a Windows install. On my last build I used Win2K SP4.

For the new build I'm looking for succinct (non-emotional) comments on XP vs 7. The price differential from my source is really inconsequential. I don't want to get into a big shabang in spending days installing drivers etc.

Would also like to know the (again) short version of the difference between Pro and Home for the above.

Will probably do a native install of the Windows platform. I also plan on doing the virtualization thinger within Mint and any other Lx ops that I'll be installing.

Thanks,

-DataMan
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waldo
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Re: New Build - Windows Questions

Post by waldo »

DataMan wrote:Getting ready to start a new PC build. Expect to have everything purchased and put together by late January.

I have a few "need apps" on the Windows side that necessitate a Windows install. On my last build I used Win2K SP4.

For the new build I'm looking for succinct (non-emotional) comments on XP vs 7. The price differential from my source is really inconsequential. I don't want to get into a big shabang in spending days installing drivers etc.

Would also like to know the (again) short version of the difference between Pro and Home for the above.

Will probably do a native install of the Windows platform. I also plan on doing the virtualization thinger within Mint and any other Lx ops that I'll be installing.

Thanks,
-DataMan
Here's my opinion (I am in the business of setting up and supporting small business systems): both XP (fully patched) and 7 work very well. 7 seems slightly faster, and XP will run more legacy programs.

If your Windows needs are for older 16bit programs I would definitely opt for XP. Just yesterday I was helping a relative switch a computer to 7 from XP (that's what us geeks get to do on Thanksgiving weekend :D ) and I ran into a program called PhotoSuite III that failed in 7. Because you are using Win2K now, this could be a real issue for you if your software is from that time frame (8-10 years ago).

Windows 7 is the best Windows yet, so if you need to spend a lot of time with Windows, and your programs will run with it, by all means choose it.

Always install Windows first on a drive you are preparing for dual boot with Linux. I think you were saying that you plan on running Linux as a virtualization within Windows. Dual booting is really better. With the cost of big drives way down, you could experiment with several distros.
exploder
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Re: New Build - Windows Questions

Post by exploder »

You might as well go with Windows 7 because XPs support will drop. The difference between XP Home and Pro is Pro has more networking components by default.
DataMan

Re: New Build - Windows Questions

Post by DataMan »

I think you were saying that you plan on running Linux as a virtualization within Windows.
Actually, it's the other way around. For each Lx ops, I would like to run windows within the Lx. Also plan on building Windows stand alone on the first NTFS partition.

I expect to have a ~750G dedicated H/D just for the ops and related (/home, dedicated GRUB etc.). Probably going to end up with 6-8G RAM. Still in the selection process on most of the H/W.

-DataMan
markcynt

Re: New Build - Windows Questions

Post by markcynt »

DataMan wrote: I have a few "need apps" on the Windows side that necessitate a Windows install. On my last build I used Win2K SP4.

-DataMan
If your apps will run on Windows 7 you should get that.

A lot of people don't want to get rid of XP but some software technology is advancing beyond XP's capabilities.
DrHu

Re: New Build - Windows Questions

Post by DrHu »

exploder wrote:You might as well go with Windows 7 because XPs support will drop. The difference between XP Home and Pro is Pro has more networking components by default.
And better user setups (permissions control) in the XP pro version, which all changed for Vista/Win7 (UAC - User account control)

Win7 has fixed the problems from Vista, missing drivers or drivers not ready/not working correctly ; and it scales better than previous windows OS (NT, XP), may use less resources than XP under some application types..
--none of which may matter for a desktop..
c++101

Re: New Build - Windows Questions

Post by c++101 »

i would choose Win 7. Most of the XP programs that won't work on regular & will probably work in XP mode.
FYI XP mode is only in Professional and Ultimate.
You could also use a virtual machine to run most XP programs. :)
DataMan

Re: New Build - Windows Questions

Post by DataMan »

Thanks for the responses so far. Based on the above it looks like it'll be Win 7 Pro.

Since the original posting, I've pretty well firmed up the H/W for the new build. I plan on re-building my Lx op(s) into 64 bit (currently running 32 bit a couple of versions back from the current release) which I will be able to handle quite comfortably within the new build. Remaining question on the original posting, with a Mint 64 bit can I run Win7 64 bit virtualized within Mint (probably KDE desktop)?

Thanks Again,

DataMan
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