Microsoft Offers Peek Into Newest Windows

Yahoo! News Technology ^ | 5/18/03 | Reed Stevenson - Reuters

[Poohbah]

The cutting-edge hardware doesn't STAY cutting-edge very long. I just upgraded to an Athon 2100 running WinXP about a month ago.

[MatthewViti]

Windows Longhorn will come in two editions:

Big Brother at Home Edition

Big Brother at Work Edition

[Tokhtamish]

Have you been to a game store lately ?

The computer games are piled in the back of the store like Engleburt Humperdinck and Vanilla Ice CD's. The box games are up front because that is what people want.

The computer has been completely displaced as the favored game platform for graphic intensive games. So that engine generating increasing demand for more and more video capability no longer exists.

Lots of companies are still running Windows NT and after the layoffs and cutbacks of this recession hard pressed systems departments have no wish to undertake the task of upgrading even to Windows 2000.

[reg45]

The main improvement is that Longhorn will be a 64bit OS rather than a 32bit OS.

[MarkL]

Just use Linux and build up on that or something.

Something interesting is going on with Novell on that front. Novell's been making more and more of its services run on other platforms, like Windows and Linux. Novell recently announced that NetWare 7 will offer all of its services to be run either on a NetWare core OS, or directly on top of Linux!

Of course, now it looks like SCO (the owner of UNIX) is throwing a major monkey wrench into the works, where they contend that Linux actually has entire blocks of UNIX source code in it, and is threatening corporate Linux users with cease and desist orders! This could get really ugly. Just think about how many "devices" are using Linux as their core OS... Just about every CD-ROM tower or NAS. Many of the better known network security appliances. TIVO, and just about any other cable or satelite HD recording device, and I'm sure that the list will just go on and on...

Mark

[Paleo Conservative]

Upgraded to Windows XP (news - web sites) yet? If not, you might miss your chance, because Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news)is already working on the newest version of its operating system, code-named Longhorn, due for release in 2005.

If you were already running Windows 2K there's little reason to upgrade. If you were running Windows NT 4, you probably lacked the hardware to run XP. If you were running Windows 98 or Windows ME on a CPU faster than 700 Mhz you should have gotten your computer with Windows 2K instead. Windows XP likes newer hardware. I would say at least 1 Ghz preferably 2 Ghz. The only computers that are really candidates for upgrades to Windows XP are ones that originally should have been loaded with Windows 2K instead of Windows 98 or ME at the factory.

[Gforce11]

Are you kidding me? Computer games are waaaayyy better and always will be better than any console game. I dunno which video game store you go to, but PC based games currently dominate the market. Why? Cause they can be changed much easer and they are a LOT less expensive, i.e. Expansion packs, upgrades, updates, and the whole bit.

[Yeti]

Windows completely fulfilled the 'must-have' computer feature set with windows 98SE, and made it rock stable with Win2000. Sorry, no more upgrade money from me.

Speaking as one who fiddles with real-time DSP, let me say that the significance of WDM drivers is not to be minimized.

I am on XP Home and while I don't much about Win2K, I have had 95, 98 and ME and XP, is orders of magnitude better than any of them. I have 768 M of ram, so memory is not a problem. I think if you get much below 128 meg it can get slow. But so long as you have enough memory, I am pretty sure that XP runs way faster than 98 or Me on any machine. The kernel streaming thing really works.

I like the way DirectShow architcture is built into the OS, too.

[oceanview]

this attempt to move their users onto totally secure hardware, full DRM (that they own), spyware, no ability to buy 3rd party upgrades because of the signed driver requirements, will be what breaks them. China is going to take over the PC hardware market, building non pre-installed OS machines (WalMart sells them today). Hang onto your set of Win2000 CDs to load them with!

[MarkL]

That's a damn stupid bet given that we've already reached the point where most users simply don't need the extra power, and certainly won't pay more to get it ... and the "faster" computers will of course remain more expensive. Only about 50-60% of the people I know ever even upgraded to XP. Why would they jump to Longhorn? Especially when the biggest "benefit" will be eye candy? Translucent windows! Whee! I know that's why I upgraded to Mac OS X, so I could play with the opacity of the windows.

The issue is within the business community. Most larger corporations lease their computers w/ 3 year leases, and rarely, if ever, buy out the lease. So every 3 years, they get new computers. When MS phases out Win2K, like they did with Win9x, there simply won't be a choice. They'll be forced into either XP or the later versions, just like now, they're offering Win2K on business machines as a special order.

Mark

[Major_Risktaker]

I kindly disagree.

The consumer wins big!

Today I have a movie and recording studio on my desktop. Not to mention access to the world publishing via the WEB!

AMAZING TECHNOLOGY, I'll take all I can get.

[Paleo Conservative]

Lots of companies are still running Windows NT and after the layoffs and cutbacks of this recession hard pressed systems departments have no wish to undertake the task of upgrading even to Windows 2000.

Windows NT is getting harder to support. It does not have the ease of updating that Windows 2K, or XP have. I found that my lone NT machine got less and less reliable and started to crash if left on overnight. After upgrading it to Windows 2K, it stays on for weeks without needing to reboot. One really important bonus was the ablility to add USB and Firewire.

[Gforce11]

Nailed it right on Mark.

[oceanview]

there are always choices.

[babaloo999]

The only thing that has made my XP(pro) crash was an external USB drive(bad drivers), and a hard drive that died and caused a reboot. Why yes, it was an IBM drive.

[Timesink]

The issue is within the business community. Most larger corporations lease their computers w/ 3 year leases, and rarely, if ever, buy out the lease. So every 3 years, they get new computers. When MS phases out Win2K, like they did with Win9x, there simply won't be a choice. They'll be forced into either XP or the later versions, just like now, they're offering Win2K on business machines as a special order.

Or they'll go Linux. A lot of companies are already revolting against Microsoft for the years of monopolistic BS they've pulled like the stuff you note above (neither of my parents' companies have ever officially moved beyond Win98SE); who knows how much better Linux might be two years from now.

[Gforce11]

Till the John Q. Public learns how to use Linux and it can run the Office Suite no one is going to pack up and move.

[Tokhtamish]

I'm not talking about CompUsa. I'm talking about stores that only sell games like GameStop or Electronic Boutique, etc.

[Timesink]

Till the John Q. Public learns how to use Linux and it can run the Office Suite no one is going to pack up and move.

Two years is plenty of time for that point to arrive.

[Gforce11]

hehe..Linux users wished it were so.