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SciTech
Opening Windows on a new eXPerience
OVER 80 percent of half a billion PCs worldwide run on Intel chip and a Microsoft operating system.
Of these half a billion, over 350 million have access to Internet. Let's get local: there are just around 6 million PCs in India _ and about half of them have an umbilical to the Internet.
With these numbers, it is hardly surprising that Microsoft would want to take a leap like Superman, from the desktop to the Web, aiming to straddle both worlds.
The first step in that direction is WindowsXP ( as in eXPerience) _ the latest version of the Windows software unveiled last week. Let me share with my readers, what I believe are the pluses and minuses about it and try to help the readers with a crucial decision - should one upgrade?
Let me say straight away, that as one who has gone through a similar exercise with three earlier versions of Windows, I was quite thrilled with the look and feel of the new `avatar', but faintly troubled by some of the long term implications.
The makers seem to have absorbed that sturdy Americanism: KISS _ Keep It Simple, Stupid! As a result, we have for the first time the option of starting with an absolutely clean startup menu (except for a recycle bin). You can hide your most-used utilities in a cascading ``All Programs'' menu on the left hand side. Of course, old habits die hard and Microsoft cannot resist trying to sneak some of their inhouse favourites _ MSN Explorer, Media Player etc _ on to the start menu, but you have the means to send them scurrying back into their holes.
The other plus point in the openers is the ability to personalize the desktop for, say, five users in a family. This is a feature that Microsoft first unveiled a few weeks ago when it launched MSN Explorer in India. The downside is the irritation of having to log in with your password each time.
The old ``Find'' feature, renamed ``Search'' in WindowsMe, is made even more ``for dummies'' who are just able to type in their requirement in plain English. In other words, I can ask Windows to search for ``pictures'' instead of tiring my limited brainpower to key in ``*.jpg'' or``*.gif''.
One of the strengths of XP is that it makes home wireless networking a whizz. The new wireless standard 802.11b is about to become a global consumer protocol.
Another difference which I am not able to checkout for obvious reasons is a personal firewall.
However it is the younger user who will be drooling over the new XP _ indeed, my son finds that the new ability to handle photographs, play music, organise slide shows and concerts absolutely, to be ``cool''. If you have a webcam with your PC you can use the PC as a video phone. If you have a digital camera, XP will take care of the rest of the software and help prepare albums _ even scale photos down to 640 by 480 pixels for emailing. And guys of his generation will no doubt go into ecstasies over the new ``CD burner'' which works as a simple ``drag and drop''.
However old sourpuss that I am, some downsiders occur to me:
-the jazzed-up Windows Media Player still plays only the native WMA format, not RealPlayer's RealJukeBox or Apple's QuickTime formats. Granted, I can download these for free _ but why make me do it?
Maybe it is the generation gap at work again, but I am unable to unreservedly applaud the new built-in tools for digital photo management and CD burning. When I buy a digital camera, I get a CD with all the software tools I need to edit my pictures. When I buy a scanner or a CDwriter, the makers throw in the required software, free. And since I have been using these tools for some time, I see no reason to uninstall them and use XP's tools to do the same job. By the way XP will not rip CDs using the MP3 format, only its own WMA.
Much has been written about the improved stability of XP _10 to 30 times better than '98 is what they say. This is because unlike the earlier 95-98-Me version, the source code not built on the old DOS kernel but on the Windows 2000/NT kernel.
Precisely for this reason, users of Windows 2000 ( usually on networks or high end work stations) will not fall over themselves gasping at the stability because they've had it all the time. But the rest of us can perform an ``arthi'' to XP _ because the days of sudden inexplicable ``fatal errors'' and screen locks released only by ``ctrl-alt-del'' seem to be (touch wood!) over.
The media has been highlighting other points that you need to know:
One: Microsoft says your system must run on a processor clocking at least 300 MHz, with 64 MB of RAM and (a whopping!) 1.5 GB of free hard disk space, on a SuperVGA ( 800 by 600 pixels) monitor or better. This is for the Home Version, unlike the Professional version that has some more networking and security features and needs 128 MB of RAM. If you really want to exploit the XP's superior multimedia features, Intel engineers tell me, the ideal chip is Pentium 4 at 1.5 GHz - 1.7GHz.
Two: For the first time a software vendor seems keen on enforcing the rule that if you buy one copy of a software, it is meant to be installed only on one machine. So XP comes with a decidedly unfriendly interface: you have to ``activate the product'' by going online and registering it. In the process the guys at the other end, capture a 'snapshot' of your PC configuration. That way if you try and load the software on a radically different machine, they'll know _ and will not allow it.
I can visualise all sorts of real life cases where one needs to make such changes in a perfectly honest way _ one's disk crashes and has to be replaced, one upgrades with a new motherboard, processor, more memory....it is going to be irritating to use makes one's legally purchased software works again.
Finally, should you change to XP _ and if so when? I have different suggestions for different categories of user:
If your computer was bought or assembled before 2000, it is likely that the upgrade will not be 100 per cent smooth or will cost you a new motherboard and processor. I'd say wait _for even a year. By then all the minor problems with XP ( they're sure to surface!) will be cleaned up. There will be clarity on the licensing issue, hopefully Microsoft will relent or be forced to, by courts. Then, go in for a new contemporary machine loaded with XP.
If your computer is just under 2 years old, XP is likely to run without hassle _ but I would still add more RAM to a 64 MB machine. An upgrade costs Rs 4200 for the Home edition. Stiff _ but you have to do it sooner or later, because WinXP is going to be the only game in town _ soon. (Fierce Linux fans may skip this paragraph). sThose who are about to buy a new PC are the fortunate ones _ you have no ``dharma sangadam'' to face: XP is the only way to go.
Anand Parthasarthy
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