<p>Other things matter as well, such as warranty and service, hard drive space, processor speed, and video card. The assumption that all students only need the bare minimum is ill informed. Will you use your computer to watch TV and movies? Some schools don't allow TV's in dorm rooms, but have TV available over their networks. Do you save a lot of images? I know few students who will make good use of an 80 GB hard drive. If you know for certain that none of that matters, then a bare bones machine is fine. If not, you'd best shop around and do a little research.</p>
<p>The difference between XP Home and XP Pro is in the networking features. Some schools say they require XP Pro for their networks. You might want to check with your particular school, but also with students there to see if it really matters. </p>
<p>Be careful with the cheaper Dell laptops if you're planning to use another monitor. Some don't have standard video ports. They cut a lot of corners to get their prices down so low. There's no reason to go hog wild on an expensive laptop, but be careful with the cheap ones too.</p>
<p>Some schools say they require XP Pro for their networks.</p>
<p>Impossible...
Show me one school that says this.</p>
<p>I worked for UCLA network services for the past year and a half, and I can't think of any network configuration that would necessitate XP pro. So... prove it</p>
<p>Those are the first three I checked, so I assume there are more. Your school may be different. But if it's not, like I mentioned before, you might want to contact students at your particular school to see if it really matters.</p>
<p>those all look like recommendations to me. None of them say "if your computer does not run XP pro, it will not be able to connect to our network"... because that is ridiculously unlikely.</p>
<p>Even RIT's thing - "These operating systems are not intended for use on a large corporate network such as RIT's"
is a bunch of BS. Any operating system will be able to connect to RIT's network. XP (home and pro alike) will be much easier to configure than older OS's, but they will still work.</p>
<p>XP pro is listed as minimum requirement at the schools I mentioned, not a recommendation. The fact that UCLA is still happy with Win98, doesn't rule out that another school can have other requirements. If you worked at a school that listed XP Pro as a minimum requirement, and you told me it wasn't really necessary, it would carry more weight. </p>
<p>All I'm saying is that I would talk with people at the particular school to be sure. I'm not saying XP Home won't work at any of these schools, but a new student will have enough to deal with the first weeks of school without having to hunt down tech support and figure out what to do if it doesn't work. </p>
<p>It's irresponsible to advise people to ignore their school's requirements, especially if they may not be tech savvy. If you had to install a different operating system, you wouldn't think twice, but for some people it's no trivial matter. How could it possibly hurt to find out?</p>
<p>If you worked at a school that listed XP Pro as a minimum requirement, and you told me it wasn't really necessary, it would carry more weight.</p>
<p>indeed - unfortunately, i cannot offer that - all I can say is that I don't think XP pro can be a bona fide "requirement" for any network. Like I said, the school might strongly recommend XP pro, but Mac OS X and XP Home will work just as well.</p>
<p>But if they are requirements, how do you suggest the following, copied straight from the RIT site?...</p>
<p>Through an agreement with Dell Computer, RIT offers a specially configured laptop machine known as the RIT Standard Laptop. When you buy an RIT Standard Laptop, it includes **Microsoft Windows 2000* and Microsoft Office XP.*</p>
<p>Seems a little odd that a school that "requires" XP pro would suggest a laptop that comes with 2000</p>
<p>I'm almost tempted to e-mail their NS department to find out the reasoning for that statement.</p>
<p>microsoft 2000 and XP Pro are both acceptable for most networks. XP home does not have the ALL networking capabilities needed for some schools due to the fact that it is made for <em>home</em> usage. However, using home will still allow you to connect to your schools internet.<br>
I personally chose not to connect directly to the network at my school and the only thing this means for me is that I don't have a <em>personal</em> p drive to save stuff on that I can open from other computers also on the network....big woopdeedoo</p>
<p>Windows 2000 and XP Pro have identical networking features. Home has some of them stripped out. Windows 2000 is still the OS of choice for many companies. It is in no way inferior to XP Pro (which I think was the insinuation) when it comes to networking.</p>
<p>does anyone else here prefer PCs to laptops? i really HATE laptops....cramped hands and fingers are the worst! and sometimes it's so hard to find a desk! typing is a pain in the a s s .</p>
<p>i was thinking that unless you can type ridiculously fast and want to take notes in class, a desktop's a better bet. it's harder to steal AND it's a lot more comfortable to use (at least for me). sure you can't carry it around (unless you really wanted to), but i would rather be happy knowing it's safe and sound in my dorm room than losing it somewhere. but that's just me.</p>
<p>"i think anybody who go for something other than dell ibm or apple is out of their mind and looking for trouble."</p>
<p>Toshiba laptops are made much better than Dell's. That aside, most laptops, with the same specifications, will work relatively the same if the user has some sort of understanding of what not to do. IBMs might be more "catastrophe-proof" or "stupidity-proof" but I'd be willing to be that might Acer would perform computer tasks just as well, if not better, than a comparable IBM.</p>
<p>i agree with you that the basic computer is more or less the same for every name brand. its the little things that make the difference: You cant compare acer and toshiba service to dell and ibm and besides ibm just has a better product ( shock proof, the little light over the keyboard etc...)</p>