win XP pro vs home and noise levels in a CTO T43 order

[ddutta]

I will be ordering a CTO T43. It seems I can get the same model for $60 cheaper if I go for a XP home. What would be the major differences between the two. Also my workplace has a volume license for WinXP Pro which I can use. Can I get all the drivers to work with a std XP Pro SP2 install followed by some thinkpad specific drivers? I run linux everywhere and this T43 will be my only Windows machine (will have dual boot though )

Also has anyone had any experience regarding the noise levels of the CTO T43s? I have asked this question few times and there has been no response. I am going in for a 2687E8U (1.86G, SXGA+, 3yr) + 9cell + 60GB7200rpm + DVD/CDRW + 2200BG.... I dont need the bells and whistles like B-tooth and Fingerprint.

Thanks!

[Ground Loop]

Every driver you need for the T43 can be downloaded individually, and I think only the Chipset drivers are actually imperative. So you could do a cold XP Pro install if you wish.

In fact, it's even easier if you take the existing XP Home machine, copy off all the C:\IBM* and C:\DRIVER directories, and keep those for installing. They're the installers for everything you need.

IBM did a really nice job of saying "here's our added stuff", leaving the installers around for when you need them. No worries.

[keku]

you can surely use it, as long as you are not concerned about license. if your company has policy to give OS to employees for home use then you are ok. otherwise it will not be considered licensed.

Make sure you delete hidden partition coz that will contain copy of XP home. for recovery purposes and might coz some problems later.

[ddutta]

Thanks for the information. Most of the time I will use Linux and I also checked that my department can legally allow me to use the XP pro license as I use it to work from home. My windows use is limited to using some fancy windows only goodies like voice chat with yahoo etc. so XP home should be good enough.

[nrj45]

The major difference between pro and home is that home has some other network abilities especially :
- includable in a domain (not only workgroup)
- ntfs permissions can be handled (though u can do it by installing a small exe under home)
So you're right. If you want only use this windows like a "user" then go with a home, there is no difference for that use.

BTW : be careful with your dual boot. When I installed mine, I partitionned the disk during the ubuntu install. Later I wanted to add a partition. So i deleted one logical drive with the windows disk managment (to have space to creat 2 logical drive). Since that, grub was not able to boot my ubuntu install.

[ddutta]

Thanks for the info. Regarding Ubuntu, did you partition using Linux or Windows. I typically do one of the following:

1. Use linux to delete and create all partitions.
2. Use partition magic to create all partitios including the winxp one.

Using this method, I have had no problems using Mandrake/Fedora on my T42. Also once windows gets installed you might want to reinstall grub using the rescue mode in case you installed windows 1st

[nrj45]

I first created the 1st partition for windows during windows install. I then created all other partitions using ubuntu. I tried partition magic, but it wasn't able to "read drive letters" and wouldn't start.