toadfrog -

In partial answer to your query about "ordinary persons needing Office:"

The people I know who have the toy "Works" have frequently asked for help with word processing, only to find that the Word features that would do what they want are NOT in the "Works" word processor. If you restored the 80 percent (my guess) of features that are "left out" of the Works word processor (Which is NOT Word, in any sense of the word name) you might find that it's more competitive with the WP that you've compared it to.

The limitations with the "spreadsheet" included with "Works" are even more of a bother. With the real Excel, there are a number of "plug-in" functions that most of the time you don't even need to load - but they are there in Excel if you find that you need them; and they are not available in the Works "toy" spreadsheet. I don't use Excel for very many things, but even I have several of the Add-in Toolpacks installed, because they do - and are required in order to do - simple but convenient spreadsheet operations.

As you mentioned, the "Home" version lacks all networking functions. This may not be a problem for many people, but I've encountered a couple within my own limited group who have been unpleasantly surprised that those network functions are needed - and can't be added - to do things that they found a need for.

I haven't encountered the problem, but reasonably reliable reports are that the XP-Home op system has significantly "less robust" Plug-And-Play. The Pro versions of XP can easily resolve most IRQ/DMA conflicts, and can operate quite nicely with multiple shared IRQs. I'm told that XP-Home is "much more limited" in this area.

There is also a significant difference in how the "system registration" deal works with XP-Home and XP-Pro. With XP-Home, you may have to log on to "reinstate" your registration if you make a significant number of software additions. You almost certainly will have to re-register if you make any significant hardware changes. With XP-Pro, there is still the possibility that you'll do something that looks like you've "changed ownership," but so far as I've seen the "tolerance" is so wide that you're unlikely to encounter the need. (That's unless you're one of those who just can't resist perpetually "rebuilding" things.)

There are probably people who should use the "Home" version. I don't know anyone I'd recommend it to; but I do know several who wish they hadn't settled for it.

John