WinXP Home is certainly a usable OS for those with fairly limited needs. If you absolutely must minimize cost, it's an option.

There are a couple of fairly common network protocols for which Home is not equipped that Pro handles automatically. They're common enough to cause a few people a problem, but most people won't run into them.

WinXP Pro has much more useful self-repair and much better administrator tools for adjusting settings and making corrections in case of a few fairly common problems that people run into. It's not that you can't make the repairs with Home, but if you've looked for them Pro has a lot more, and more useful, maintenance features. If you're expert enough to do all your own maintenance, you'll appreciate the difference if you ever run into a significant problem. If you usually call in outside help, they'll likely not tell you how much easier it would be if you had Pro.

The machine-specific registration bit is also a little more easily handled with Pro than with Home. If you make fairly trivial changes like adding hard drives or replacing burners you may need to "register" that Home is still on the same machine, where with Pro the registration is much more tolerant of minor changes.

Pro also allows some additional options for running non-compliant programs that are not available, and/or not as "controllable" with Home.

I consider WinXP Pro a good value. I won't argue with those who get by all right with WinXP Home. It's a recommendation, not a command.

John