Flutterby™! : Windows XP launches 2001-10-25 16:34:19+00

Windows XP launches

2001-10-25 16:34:19+00 by Dan Lyke 4 comments

Windows XP launches. Before anyone takes me to task for the following snide comments, let me cynically state publicly that I believe that Windows XP will be a tremendous success, embraced by consumers. I weep for humanity. From the article:

The system promises fewer computer crashes and will allow users to delete data from their hard drive.

Oh good. Now we get the choice. Previous versions just randomly destroyed data. In his remarks Bill Gates added:

"New York City is the perfect place to announce the worldwide availability of Windows XP."

Like they need another disaster this soon after the first. Well, I guess if Dubya went to ground zero to pimp his war on terrorism, Billy can do it for the war on users. They're using Madonna's Ray of Light as the theme tune, I guess Material Girl was a little too close to the mark. Simon Witts, VP of Microsoft Europe, Middle East and Africa said: "Windows XP will lead to a reinvigoration of the PC...", ie: Buy Intel stock, 'cause this sucker is gonna dog hardware, with "a better "Start Menu," a snazzier look, and brighter icons".

So far as I can tell, it's Windows 2000 with embedded advertising for Microsoft marketing partners. And for those of you who talk about the NT derivative OS as stable, which has not been my experience, I'll leave you with Dave Winer on Windows 2000

Once I installed Microsoft's Back Office on a server just for fun, and found out why people say W2K is a crashy OS. If you don't install any Microsoft apps, it's actually a rock-solid OS. Go figure.

Phil just got back from the SF version of the XP launch. He's very impressed about the corralling and API spoofing features that let legacy apps run better. He mentioned some mouse-dropping issues during the demo, pop-up menus not disappearing right, but overall he seems pretty hyped about the demo.

I'll remain the curmudgeon, although I did get a snazzy lenticular Pentium 4 mousepad that only works on my machine 'cause the lens screws up the optical mice, and a Windows XP notebook, which I will use to chronicle something un Microsoftish, even if I'm not yet sure what.

Mouse droppings and pop-up menu's acting properly would be pretty basic essential stuff for a GUI centric OS wouldn't it? First looks at RedHat 7.2 rock!