M$ OS w/out buying it?

I had been using M$ operating systems for years before shifting to Linux two years ago.
However, sometime I feel the need to install XP for a while - not all the M$-related softwares have an equivalent on GNU/Linux, you know.

So... I do not have an original Windows OS set, every now & then have to d/l those crappy rips with their "30 days of life".

The question is: if I want to d/l the closer-pains-free rip of WinXP, what I shall to choose?
I'm a little bit confused by all those integrated, corporate, home/professional, student and such releases...

Any suggest? Or have you all a licensed, retail Windows OS?

Cheers!

The "corporate" version should always be good. I usually aim for the XP Pro versions.

What are you going to use to download the software, or what do you have access to and we can better notify you of what's available to you? Bittorrent? Usenet? Other?

Also, is there any reason why you want XP over 7?

EDIT: This one I have used twice for friends' computers.

Microsoft.Windows.XP.Professional.SP3.Integrated.June.2009.Corporate.Unattended-UP2DATE

or

Microsoft.Windows.XP.Professional.SP3.Integrated.June.2009.Corporate-UP2DATE

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Skiz

The "corporate" version should always be good. I usually aim for the XP Pro versions.

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Any particular reason?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Skiz

What are you going to use to download the software, or what do you have access to and we can better notify you of what's available to you?

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I prefer torrents, but I don't care about it as we're talking about less than 700 MB ;-)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Skiz

Also, is there any reason why you want XP over 7?

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Hardware limitations, I guess.

Thanks for replying!

I like Pro as it doesn't have all the fluff that "Media Center Edition" has, but offers more than the Home edition and was supposedly faster. (I suppose you could your own comparison if you felt like it.)

These are versions I have used several times that work just fine.

Microsoft.Windows.XP.Professional.SP3.Integrated.June.2009.Corporate.Unattended-UP2DATE

or

Microsoft.Windows.XP.Professional.SP3.Integrated.June.2009.Corporate-UP2DATE

found several UP2DATE releases [i mean, monthly]: why choose a "june edition" over a "december" one? just curiosity ;-)

The "UP2DATE" releases should all be fine.

I recommended the June release as I've used it and can confirm it works. I'd wager there haven't been any major updates to XP in the past few months tho' so I'd say they are probably comparable. The December one is probably fine.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chinaski

found several UP2DATE releases [i mean, monthly]: why choose a "june edition" over a "december" one? just curiosity ;-)

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Use "Windows XP Performance Edition SP3 December 2009" , its hands down the best edition of windows.

The guy stripped everything down to its bear bones and has xp running at 32mb of ram!!!! Not even ubuntu can run that low.

He also takes away unnecessary items that you never use. I have yet to run into something that he took out because they really must have been stupid bloat items.
I run multiple computers on it and it is flawless. Less glitchy then the windows release if you ask me.

I have never used a normal release of windows since my first install of performance edition. It makes even the trashiest computers run like gold.

Some cool features (In my opinion):
1) only 300mb big!!!! wow
2) You can burn it to a cd (which is great for lower end systems that don't have a dvd player)
3) 32mb of ram (come on this is just amazing)
4) Tons of worthless trash that you have to delete when doing a fresh install is removed!
5) Alot of fixes built in (such as halfopen connections, and windows themes pre patched)

Trust me you'll never want to use linux again lol.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Skiz

The "UP2DATE" releases should all be fine.

I recommended the June release as I've used it and can confirm it works. I'd wager there haven't been any major updates to XP in the past few months tho' so I'd say they are probably comparable. The December one is probably fine.

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That's the one I just installed but Dec.21 /09

SCENE GROUP: UP2DATE



PRODUCT FEATURES:
- Unattended (Automated Installation)
- Integrated (Updated with Service Packs, Updates, Patchs, Hotfixes)
- December 21, 2009 (Date of Integration)
- Corporate Edition (No Serial/Key Required)
- Great for Virtual Machines as this is extremely light, fast, and perfect for
a virtual testing environment
- Updateable
- Validates
- Tested, Verified, Scanned, and can be Confirmed by RudeBoySes

Thanks to all.
By the way, it seems to me there's a way to "assemblate" a WinXP release as much as you like like a GNU/Linux distro.
Isn't it?

You mean, stripping down windows components? Nlite for xp, vlite for Vista/7.
And why the heck you keep referring to that POS winXP ? It's a OS dated from 2001, FFS.