In the maelstrom that is the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks, the continuing threat of Anthrax arriving in the mail, and the bombing of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Microsoft has launched the latest installation of it’s operating system: Windows XP. The big question is, does anyone care?
For most users of Windows 2000, the answer is “Probably Not”. Win2k gives as much stability as most desktop users need to run their office productivity apps, and server administrators who are content to choose point and click ease-of-use over robust security don’t really have any other choice. It’s hard to see the “burning need” that would drive them to upgrade once again, although it’s certainly possible (and Microsoft would like you to get habituated to upgrading every 2-3 years anyways–their new licensing structure being a good piece of evidence towards that point).
Having said that, does Windows XP offer significant advantages over Windows 2000? It’s hard to determine; preliminary reviews generally cite a new abundance of “bells and whistles” without any real functionality gain other than that it doesn’t crash like Windows 95/98/ME. (Shouldn’t that have already been addressed by ME or 2000, however?). One thing is for certain: by bundling their media player, IM client, HailStorm/.NET and similar with the OS, it’s certain that Microsoft is seeking to further consolidate it’s hold on the desktop market by controlling basically every aspect of the typical user’s “experience” with their machine.
I think the real question may be: does anyone really want to submit to that kind of end-to-end immersion in one company’s product? When your email client, word processor, IM client, web browser, and media player all come from one source, that makes you particularily beholden to that provider. We’ve already seen the danger this can cause; take any rapidly-spread email virus from the past three years. These viruses readily exploited the nature and way in which Microsoft’s programs are tied together to wreak absolute havoc on millions of machines. I fear that by expanding this interconnectedness of Microsoft applications into the online realm (vis a vis .NET), the potential for ever-greater security breaches is increased.
So in this understandably risk-averse, post-9/11 climate, does anyone really want to line up for another dose of danger? I guess we’ll find out.