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THE LAUNCH OF WINDOWS XP

Brian Grainger

brian@grainger1.freeserve.co.uk

A few years ago I was longing for the day when the Windows I ran on my home computer was the same as that on my computer at work - so that I did not have to learn and understand two different systems. On October 25th 2001 that day came and was I happy? No!

Now that the razzmatazz has died down it is time to reflect on the most significant change in the Windows line for 6 years.

The launch of Windows XP, (for experience), was supposed to be almost as high key as that for Windows 95. Unfortunately, Microsoft originally chose to launch XP with fairground rides in Times Square, New York and adverts with users flying into high rise buildings with the tagline 'Learn to Fly'. The events of September 11th drastically changed those ideas. Perhaps it is just as well. When Windows 95 launched we were in the middle of what appeared to be a never ending boom period and selling computers was not difficult. In 2001 things have changed. We are at the start of a recession period and we are none too keen to buy computers any more. Some are hoping that XP will kick start PC buying again but I think that is highly unlikely.

Two other major changes in the way Microsoft sell software are going to take effect with this version of Windows. Microsoft is moving to a subscription based method of paying for software - at least in the business market. No longer will product upgrades exist. You will pay a fixed annual fee of 29% of the full price, (minimum 3 years), which will entitle the user to all amendments to the software in the period. If this option is not taken or you let it lapse then the next time a business wants to buy a version of Windows it has to pay the full price again. The business user community is not at all happy with this idea as it puts up their costs and locks them in to an endless upgrade cycle.

I have not been able to work out whether upgrades will exist in the home market. Microsoft have not really addressed this market in all their announcements. In any event they have thrown in another nasty idea, Product Activation. Supposedly to combat piracy, if you buy an off the shelf Windows XP package you may install it but it will only work for 30 days. By that time you must contact Microsoft, online or by telephone, and obtain a key code that will be unique to your PC configuration. You will not be able to install Windows XP on more than one machine and if you crash the system and need to reinstall you will have to go back to Microsoft again. Even if you buy some new hardware and make more than 3 (or 4 depending at what you read) changes within 6 months then you will need to reactivate Windows XP. The novice user is just not going to be able to cope with this approach. I fancy the techy user, understanding the problem, is now more likely to go the pirate channel and get Windows XP which has been hacked to remove product activation. Office XP, which also has product activation, has already been hacked and is now available if you know where to get it.

Fortunately, if you buy a new computer with Windows XP installed, product activation is not implemented. So, the novice user can avoid problems by buying a new PC. One way to sell them I suppose.

Windows XP is not cheap. Remember when a DOS upgrade cost £50 and Windows 95 cost £60-£70. The Windows XP Home upgrade cost £88 from Jungle.

You pay a lot of money. What do you get for it. Windows 95 was quite a shift from Windows 3.x. Does XP give a similar quantum leap. It looks different. It has a completely new interface, but all that means is you have to relearn all the tricks again. You could choose a classic 9x interface if you want, but why upgrade if you want that?

XP has a number of freebies (?) included in the price, mostly in the media area. Software to burn CDs is inbuilt - you can create movie clips - Internet Explorer 6 is improved - Media Player is improved - manipulation of photos. Is this enough to make you move from Windows 9x?

One very significant change has hardly been mentioned in the press. The hard disk format has changed from the FAT32 system to the NTFS, (NT filing system). They are incompatible of course so any utilities that hit the metal, such as Partition Magic, have to be bought again to cope with the new system. Also DOS does not recognise NTFS so there could be some interesting happenings when Home networks are set up with some older computers running DOS.

A good feature of XP is that it allows multiple copies of DLLs to be available so applications that require a specific version rather than the latest will still work with XP.

There is support for home networking in the Home version of XP (but not in the Professional version).

One VERY nice feature for support personnel is remote assistance. This is a bit like Laplink built in so that a helper can connect to a remote machine and take it over to provide assistance to solving problems. The Instant Messenger service can be used as a connecting medium.

On the Professional version of XP there is a Remote Desktop feature which allows you to run applications from a remote computer acting as a terminal.

Users of laptops should notice a welcome change. XP uses Microsoft's Cleartype technology. This makes screen type clearer to read on an LCD screen. It doesn't work on standard monitors because the way pixels are displayed is different. This is a very good reason to get an LCD screen if you buy a new XP based PC. The idea behind Cleartype is to get screen display nearer to the quality of paper. Cleartype uses the extra pixels on an LCD screen, normally to allow colour to be displayed, as finer resolution for black and white. This technology was developed for use in e-books.

There are numerous other enhancements and lots more attempts to automatically control problem events. This supposedly makes XP more resilient but I have an in-built distrust of software that tries to correct things automatically. It usually does things I do not want to happen and hinders me doing things I do want to happen.

There has been an issue during the anti trust case of Microsoft bundling products together. In addition to the media facilities already mentioned, Windows XP includes the Passport sign-on feature that users of Hotmail or Microsoft Instant Messenger will know about. Essentially, this allows a single log-on to multiple Internet related services and sites. Already there has been discussion on the security of Passport and privacy issues. Competitors, such as AOL Instant Messenger which is based on ICQ, have also been vocal. They argue that XP users will naturally take up Passport and Microsoft's messenger service rather than install additional software for AOL's version.

The use of Passport is not without its problems. XP repeatedly requests the user's e-mail address and password to create a Passport account. Also, users risk being spammed by subscribing to Passport. The Passport agreement permits Microsoft and its partners to send you an unlimited number of commercial e-mail messages. If Hotmail is anything to go by you will also get lots of other stuff on top - some rather sordid. What is worse, users cannot rescind Microsoft's permission to use their e-mail address. They must unsubscribe from every partner's e-mail list individually.

As you can see I have mentioned quite a number of reasons which may inhibit sales of XP. I have left until last what may turn out to be its Achilles heel.

Some time ago Microsoft lost a court case against Sun which stopped them adding Microsoft specific extensions to the Java licence they had. The effect of losing this case was that Microsoft was not allowed to licence the latest Java. Microsoft have responded by removing all Java support from future products, including XP. This could mean that lots of current web pages will not be fully functional with XP. It is possible to obtain Java support for XP from Sun but at the moment it is a rather large download. No doubt it will appear on the cover disks but there is a big difference between out of the box support and having to install an extra. Microsoft are hoping that developers will turn to their Java killer, C# (pronounced C sharp). However, there is a lot of existing support for Java and I would not take bets at the moment as to whether C# will prevail.

The next few months are going to be interesting. Microsoft have bet the future on XP, (and .Net, which I have not talked of here), but there are a lot of reasons and economic conditions why things will not go Microsoft's way. The final judgement in the anti trust case is not likely to have much impact on the rise and rise of Microsoft. However, the decisions taken with XP may be the start of a slow decline. There are a number of reasons to dislike XP. It now requires users to turn that dislike into negative action - that is not to buy it!

We live in interesting times.

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