Well, what can be said from this? The quick and dirty answer is that Windows XP Professional 64 Bit Edition for 64 Bit Extended Systems is not ready for prime time just yet. One issue is driver support, the other is that really there isn't much (if any) of a performance benefit in programs that haven't been recompiled for x86-64. I'll be revisiting this when there are some versions of software that people normally use showing up in 64 bit format.
You really don't lose anything from trying it out in a dual boot setup with your normal OS of choice. And, Microsoft is nice enough to give it out for free on the download version. The actual CD you have to pay shipping costs for those of you still on dialup. Again, until we start seeing real applications, I wouldn't get too excited about this (unless you are a real geek).
I'd like to thank Microsoft for the opportunity to test out this operating system, and you for taking the time to read through this analysis. If you have any questions, comments, or flames regarding this article, please feel free to stop into the Dev Hardware forums and let us know what you think.
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