Which Windows version for my iMac

g_warreng_warren
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
I've never owned a Windows PC before, but now that my iMac includes bootcamp, I have been thinking about porting one or two of the shareware apps I make to windows. Obviously I then need a windows system for testing. A couple of questions if I may;



1) Which version of Windows is my best bet - XP or Vista (it is anticipated that my app will run on both)



2) I assume I should be buying the home user edition, and I am swaying towards Basic for the price. Is the Premium worth the extra money? I will only be using it for test my app, but should I be testing using the aero interface?



3) What is to stop me buying one of the 'OEM' versions that sells for £60 on Amazon? I assume that the licencing terms stop people like me from using it. Will it even install on an iMac?



3) Bearing in mind that I'm on a pretty tight budget, where is my best bet for legit versions? I was looking at amazon.co.uk, but are there any deals for UK users that anyone knows of?



Thanks folks!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    guinnessguinness Posts: 473member
    I prefer Vista to XP, but XP is till faster and slightly more stable at this point. Vista is perfectly happy on 2 GB of RAM however, although I feel the same with Leopard.



    If buying Vista, get the Home Premium OEM - it basically ties you to one machine, but you should be able to call India if you want to install and activate it on another machine at a later point.



    Any other version of Vista, besides Business/Enterprise is a waste of time, and those only really matter if you plan on being on a domain.
  • Reply 2 of 4
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    You may want to consider trying CrossOver, which doesn't need windows at all. Compatibility is spotty, but if the Windows apps you plan on using are in the compatibility list, then I would say it's the way to go.
  • Reply 3 of 4
    kingofsomewherehotkingofsomewherehot Posts: 4,176member
    Don't know about any UK deals, but the OEM versions are the full deal, they just don't include any support from M$. I got an OEM to run in Parallels on my iMac... no problems installing it at all.



    At this point, If you're only going to buy only ONE version of the OS, I'd go with XP simply because that's probably what most of your customers would be running, so that'd be the best one to test on. You'd probably want to test it on both XP and Vista if you want to be certain it plays well with both (but then Windows users are used to compatibility problems. haha.)
  • Reply 4 of 4
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,168moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by G_Warren View Post


    1) Which version of Windows is my best bet - XP or Vista (it is anticipated that my app will run on both)



    XP. Vista should run XP software but the converse is less likely.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by G_Warren View Post


    2) I assume I should be buying the home user edition, and I am swaying towards Basic for the price. Is the Premium worth the extra money? I will only be using it for test my app, but should I be testing using the aero interface?



    XP Pro. You shouldn't have to specially program for Aero, it will be like aqua in OS X. An XP app will just use it automatically.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by G_Warren View Post


    3) Bearing in mind that I'm on a pretty tight budget, where is my best bet for legit versions? I was looking at amazon.co.uk, but are there any deals for UK users that anyone knows of?



    Amazon is ok. I got a legit copy of XP Pro off ebay for £40 about a year ago, boxed and tested genuine against the Microsoft website but you'd probably have to get lucky when it comes to ebay.
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