Window xp is the front runner of Microsoft operating system for home and business workstations and notebooks. I heard from some guys that xp stands for eXPerience. I got into it rather by force than choice.why? because I bought a new computer and
it came loaded with it.With my limited experience in both computers and software and everything about life, I consider it is a wonderful operating system.
First thing first.XP comes in two flavors:home and professional edition.The big difference between them is that Professional version can support 2 processors like 2000 professional where as the home version is good for one processor.
XP is the chosen one to take full advantage of intel’s new technology:hyper-threading.so the new machines with processor over 3.0Ghz with hyper-threading features will make your machine roaring into actions even with one processor and xp home edition. XP professional is also blessed with more stability (those who bought it claim that) and a backup utility. It also has better battery management for notebooks which is crucial for watching a DVD or playing games rather working on boring office projects.
I have no idea how to install the XP from scratch.But I have given a CD which filled with wizard and whispers to reload again to my PC if I wish.Hopefully I will not be forced to follow that route in future. However XP allows you to boot from
a flash/memory key.So if some bad things happen, you can bring back to its feet in a flash and then load the OS and finally finish with loading all the drivers from another CD.
XP has a very playful appearance with lots of bright colors and icons. It does not have a business look of win-2000.But good thing is it has almost all the nice features of 2000.you have a taskmanager so you can see what application running,
how much cpu being used and what ever memory is left after your transformed it into a game machine. You can see the services applet and control which ones you need to start or disable.You are the administrator of the machine and you can
assign users and the jokers can then design their desktops to their weird choice. Access is password protected if you wish that way to secure your stuffs.
XP has advantages of an inbuilt firewall and it is considered not that good by many smart guys.however to a simple and partially ignorant person like me, the wisdom of having something better than nothing is more appreciated.It has remote
connection utility which works like vnc or pc anywhere.I have not used that feature yet.It has again the regular telnet client stuffs and networking with other computers over tcp/ip or by sharing the network drives.if you have a cd-r, then you
can rightclik on some files and then send to this cd-r drive to be saved in your cd/cd-rw.
The best part of XP I like is to take back your computer to the past. It is done by its own configuration of restore points. You can also create your own restore point before installing a new hardware or a driver.if things don’t work out,
then bring back your machine to earlier glory days.Only the system part is affected.Your datafiles, e-mails all they stay fresh.You can also rollback a driver if the updating did not workout as you were promised.
XP has the feature of telling you if your older software will work with it or not.There is a compatibility type testing from the start menu to check that.XP is definitely optimized for best of plug-and-play so recognize most of the commercial
products like digital cameras, scanners, and memory readers instantly.Taking all these fine consideration, XP seems a just and matured product from Microsoft.
Bad thing: we can’t copy this software.We don’t buy this software, we just buy a license to use in one machine.It runs fine for 30 days telling you to activate it over web or by calling Microsoft office.The Microsoft guy will give you a password
to use it and you can’t use that same password to load that same software into another machine.Since Microsoft is struggling, they need all these money to keep their business alive!
If not XP then what? we can still be happy if we running 2000.XP is light years ahead of win-98 and win-95 which made my computer to freeze several times every day.LInux is gaining acceptance but mostly in server business.I was told that fine
product like Redhat Linux will cost you around 145 dollars which come in workstation version with a manual.There are many commercial software yet to be written for it.I think it does not even support dvd drive. Apple products are very good,
cute and bite you with high price. Until the dust settles, XP is the only bride to look forward to in the near future.