Will Windows XP really jumpstart the computer industry again? (1 Viewer)

[Yoshi Sugawara]

I keep reading on the news that many major computer manufacturers are heavily anticipating WinXP to boost hardware sales, but will it really?
Are the average consumers really excited to get a new computer just because of an operating system? I don't think people other than the hardcore users are going to rush out and get a new computer because of the new operating system. I also don't think the benefits of the perceived benefits of the operating system aren't that apparent (better security, instant messaging, messy UI)
I personally think XP looks harder to use, since it looks like a messy web page with so much activity on it. The new Media Player reminds me of the messiness that is RealPlayer. I was actually impressed with Mac OS X, but that's another story...
But do you all think that people will rush out and get new computers because of WinXP??
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[Rob Gillespie]

Of course they wont. Usual pre-release marketing bullshit as usual. Microsoft are clinging onto that hope only because PC sales are dropping all over the world, which in turn affects the number of operating system packages they sell. From what I've heard there is nothing revolutionary about Windows XP. I'm sure there are some nice new features in there, but a lot of it seems to be fluff and pretty desktop images. I'm still using Media Player 6.4. I tried version 7 some time ago and hated it instantly. Way, way, way too much bloat. I want to click on a wav file and have it play within one second, not have to wait six seconds for the damn application to load.
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[Edited last by Rob Gillespie on August 27, 2001 at 01:11 PM]

 

[Steven K]

Windows XP... Windows 2000 with a built in Instant Messenger, new version of Media Player, and a whole bunch of "piracy protection" that makes like difficult.
No thanks. I'll stay with Win2K.

 

[John Berggren]

Between the anti-piracy and the anti-privacy, I will also be sticking with Windows 2000. No XP for me.-
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[Colin Dunn]

Judging from the response here, it doesn't look like enthusiasts are going to drive sales of Windows XP, or new computers with WinXP pre-loaded.
Any ideas about whether or not Joe SixPack wants Windows XP? I personally have not heard much interest from non-computer-geek types. All the computer people I work with have been curious about Windows XP, but aren't lining up to buy the upgrade. Why not? The same reasons mentioned in this thread - a lack of really new features, bloat, and product activation.
If M$ wants to force people to WinXP, they need to come out with a new round of productivity apps that REQUIRES XP to run. Even that may backfire; I come nowhere near using all the capabilities of Office 2000. I don't know why I need an Office 2002XP.
Now I do covet some new computer hardware, especially with CPU and RAM prices falling through the floor. In particular - I want to build an Athlon 1.4GHz system from parts. Sorry to the big computer manufacturers, but I still prefer to build my own box. More performance for the $$$...
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Colin Dunn

 

[Carlo_M]

Actually the one cool thing about XP is the fact that it's essentially Win 2000 with an ME emulator and an OS X wannabe GUI.
I like the stability and flexibility of 2000 at work, but wish for the game playability of ME at home (although I've had remarkably good luck with ME at home). Hopefully XP will finally provide both.

 

[Iain Lambert]

Carlo, what problems are you having with getting games running on 2000? Most titles released in recent years should run, at least if they are patched up correctly.

 

[Nick]

With the piracy stuff encoded. I don't think it will take off like a rocket. You have to call everytime you want to install it. That's such a pain.
I format my hard drive quite often. I don't think it will be good for me. Plus it's almost $200.00 !! for full version. May be they're not really sure if the Piracy encoded code will work yet that's why they keep charging high prices. I'm pretty sure they'll be a code to crack it.
I paid too much for Win2k already and pretty happy with it. I'll stick with it for couple more years.

 

[Carlo_M]

Iain,
I'm mostly a sports freak, EA's Madden/NHL kind of stuff. The boxes say that it doesn't support NT/2000, only the 9x systems (2001 and earlier, haven't looked at 2002 versions yet).
Also, my GeForce2 Pro card supposedly don't run as well in 2000 because of the drivers. That's why I went with ME for home use.

 

[Darren Lewis]

The vast majority of "Joe Public" don't give a damn what OS is on their machine. A lot of people don't understand that Win2000 and WinME are two different systems.
As a Win2000 user, I can't see any advantage in going to XP. All my current software runs on 2000 and I don't tend to play games on my PC. I can see a lot of potential disadvanatages with no drivers etc for my older hardware. It took me long enough to get them for Win2000.
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[Ike]

I'm having a PC put together, and because I've heard horror strories about Windows 2000, I went with Windows 98. I may upgrade to ME if it's stable with most games. Is it? What about video capture stuff? And will XP be as stable as ME?

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Horror stories about 2000? Only from the inexperienced, the uneducated or plain unlucky!
XP will have reliability along the lines of 2000 as it's built around the same kernal (or at least extremely similar). Me is basically 95 with another change to the way it looks.
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[brian a]

I think the stories about XP driving PC sales are more about IT shops that have held off for the past month or two on buying PC's for the corporate desktop so that they could get them with XP rather than buying them with win2k pro or whatever and then upgrading almost immediately. Basically, they are hoping for a couple of months sales in the first month.
I don't remember what the sales #'s were for 2k in its first month or so, but I assume they are expecting this for a reason. Unless, as Rob suggested, it's just hype.
brianca...

 

[Iain Lambert]

I've not had any experience getting EA Sports games running, so that may well be the case Carlo. Drivers shouldn't be a problem however, as the latest 2k drivers are actually more up to date than the 9x ones.

 

[Steven K]

Horror stories about Windows 2000? As Rob said, must not have been from someone in the computing field. 2K is incredibly stable, and it includes PnP unlike NT.
The reason that alot of games wont run under Win2K (or any OS that uses the NT kernel) is that Win2K (and NT) won't let programmers have direct access to parts of the system that the old Win16 kernel will. So, a driver for Win98 that directly accesses system memory will not be able to do so. It's called running in "kernel" mode as opposed to running in "user" mode.
It might seem like a bad thing, but it's not. The less access that one has to system memory, the better. As a programmer, I can tell you that most crashes happen due to a problem in kernel mode, not user mode. This is one of the things that makes WinNT and 2K so much more stable.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Yoshi, I think they're dreaming. Ok, maybe it's what they'd like to see happen, but I feel that they're going to be in for a major letdown.
1. By now, if you use PC's then you've probably heard about XP. For the unitiatiated, upgrading your OS can cause major nightmares. It works best with the latest hardware, and if you already have a machine, you don't have the latest anymore. If you haven't heard about XP, then you're not going to get it anyway.
2. Sooner or later, PC's will reach their stauration point. How many of us are getting a new PC EVERY Christmas? As for offices, most already have one, and would get XP if they decided their current system were too old.
Glenn

 

[Tom_J]

I have been using XP RC for a while now. I have experienced no problems with it whatsoever. My hardware isn't the newest/greatest, but generally, of most discussion threads I see, if Win2k supports it, there's a good chance XP will as well. I have read instances where people were successful in using Win2k drivers. Keep in mind, this is still beta.
That said, I think there are a few advantages XP has over Win2k.
The boot speed is quite noticible on my computer. You do get to the desktop faster, from power on.
The GUI is something one has to get used to. (kinda like sashimi) When I first installed XP, I hated it. As time went on, I actually like it more than the standard Win2k GUI. The "Start" menu now includes most recently used apps. After all, if you don't like the "Luna" GUI, you can make it look just like Win2k. And the clear type fonts are very nicely done.
Little things like the import wizard for digital cameras come in handy when you have a 128mb smart media card with a ton of pics. You don't have to use a program with twain32 to import it. It can all be done in XP, including naming, and rotating the pics.
Task manager has addition info as well, such as network performance.
All in all, not a bad product. Just the WPA has a few people going bonkers. Time will tell, of course, how well XP will do. But then again, I guess that applies to all OSs.

 

[Nick]

Win 2k is the most stable OS so far. I haven't seen the blue screen in almost a year. I don't miss 98 or ME (installed it once, just curious) at all.