Windows to get a facelift

February 13, 2001 —

MICROSOFT WILL GIVE its flagship product, Windows, a new name and look next week.

Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates and other officials from the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant will preview the second beta of Windows XP, which had been code-named Whistler, and Office XP, which had been called Office 10.

Windows XP will feature a new UI that Microsoft has gone to great lengths to keep secret. One developer, who requested anonymity, said the UI, which is to be widely distributed later this month in Beta 2, is code-named Luna and will be based on XML.

"The UI, which of course will be available by default on the desktop version, should be interesting," said Laura DiDio, an analyst at Giga Information Group in Boston. "It will be completely configurable, and hopefully it will be easy for end-users to adapt.

"This will ensure that any future interfaces applied to the operating system can be changed a lot more easily going forward," DiDio said. "Of course, that depends on application developers to really 'get it,' to wrap their arms around the new capabilities and features."

Microsoft plans to ship the desktop version of Windows XP in the second half of 2001, with the server version due in about a year. Office XP is expected to ship by the end of June, according to Microsoft officials.

"XP" stands for "experience" and symbolizes "the rich and extended user experiences [that] Windows and Office can offer by embracing Web services that span a broad range of devices," Microsoft officials said.

"Whistler is still basically the same code base; the difference is Web, Web, and more Web," Giga's DiDio said. "There will be a lot more Web-enabled functions."

Specifically, Windows XP will offer voice, video, and application sharing over the Internet, as well as wireless access; and Office XP will integrate communication tools such as Hotmail, the company's Web-based e-mail service, according to Microsoft representatives. Office XP will also include a set of Web-based "Send for Review" tools for online document editing and review, as well as a Web-based multiuser workspace called SharePoint Team Services, the company said.

The server version, however, will merely be a Version 1.1 upgrade to Windows 2000, Giga's DiDio said; so businesses should not put off deploying Windows 2000 to wait for Windows XP. The .NET version of Windows, which is slated for release after Windows XP and is code-named Blackcomb, will be better suited for the enterprise, she said.

The public unveiling of Windows XP and Office XP will be held at the Experience Music Project (EMP), a museum built by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. The EMP includes a room dedicated to Jimi Hendrix, whose signature song "Are You Experienced?" could end up as a marketing theme for the product, as the Rolling Stones song "Start Me Up" was used for Windows 95.

InfoWorld