TinyXP - What the ?

prowla

So, MS Office means Windows.
It might be worth Windows 7 64-bit for a bit(!) of future proofing...

DatabaseError

prowla wrote: »

So, MS Office means Windows.

No!
...TinyXP tells us windows

[Deleted User]

prowla wrote: »

I guess TinyXP won't support a quad-core CPU.

Possible options are Windows 7 (maybe 64-bit), Linux, or Solaris.

If he's got kids in school or education he may be able to get Win 7 at a good price from softwareforstudents.

Windows has supported Symmetric Multiprocessing since 1996 with the release of NT4. Of all the problems TinyXP introduces, having a quad core processor isn't one of them.

prowla

DatabaseError wrote: »

No!
...TinyXP tells us windows

So, can you get Mac OS X running on that machine then?
(I suppose i could have prefixed my statement with "in the context of this thread", but then again the statement was made within the context of this thread.)

anewhope wrote: »

Windows has supported Symmetric Multiprocessing since 1996 with the release of NT4. Of all the problems TinyXP introduces, having a quad core processor isn't one of them.

The licence with XP Pro is for 1-2 CPUs - does it consider a CPU to be (a) a processor chip, regardless of the number of cores (ie. the quad-core is 1 CPU), or (b) each core a processor chip (ie. the quad-core CPU is 4 CPUs)?

prowla

Aha - the answer is here: http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/about-licensing/multicore-processor-licensing.aspx
So a single multi-core processor counts as 1 CPU, as anewhope says.
(Which is good!)

DatabaseError

prowla wrote: »

So, can you get Mac OS X running on that machine then?

Almost certainly, though it would be unlicensed...a little like the current situation
:A

prowla

DatabaseError wrote: »

Almost certainly, though it would be unlicensed...a little like the current situation
:A

I know about the hackintosh, but as they say on the site: "You can't just shove a Mac OS X DVD into any old PC and expect it to work like it does on a Mac.".
Suggesting that the OP sets up his friend's main machine as a hackintosh is really not going to work out well for anybody concerned, is it?

(P.S. I have Macs and looked into running a netbook as a hackintosh a while back, but not all of the components had drivers available - you may have rekindled my interest...)

GunJack

Cane wrote: »

(or even Vista) Being a powerful machine it deserves a decent operating system anyway dont you think!

This made me chuckle

Let's face it, XP or 7, but Vista ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

HO87

Something is missing from this account somewhere methinks. TinyXP, Twin graphics cards (Crossfire?), Quad Core and all for "..just a bit of browsing and MS Office". This doesn't stack up unless one of the following applies: the OP has omitted (or hasn't been told) that the spec his friend gave his "computer man" was for a gaming machine and just a bit of browsing and MS Office; the machine was bought second-hand or, perhaps more likely, the computer man said something like "I've got a machine on the shelf I built for another guy but he couldn't/would't pay, didn't like it/changed his mind, but I'll let you have it cheap.

I really can't see anyone installing TinyXP on what would seem to be a higher end machine without there being a very specific reason for it. Having only ever installed it once it took me virtually a full day hunting around for drivers as most if not all of the driver cabs had been stripped out and whilst it seemed that there were many differing versions available I'd plumped for one that wasn't ideal. Its far easier just to install XP and be done with it.

This situation doesn't have the smack of a "computer man" tucking a customer up where one might expect to see an under-performing, under-spec'ed machine but something rather more towards the opposite end of the scale (allowing for the fact that we don't know how much RAM its running). In any event I suspect we have a machine here that, perhaps for one of the reasons advanced above, is not being used as it was intended when it was built.

Linbox

AFAIK Tiny XP usualy comes with all driverpacks available. Only time this would not work if it was a specific machine that had new hardware not available when the iso was made. I've even used it to get a laptop working - fully.