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Review : Microsoft Windows XP Home
So what can I say about Microsoft Windows XP?
It is dope, like the Xbox.
The first computer I ever owned was a Macintosh with 128k or Ram, a 400k Floppy drive and System 1.0. Until Windows 3.0 came out PCs have always meant DOS to me but then through gradual exposure my Mac based existance learned to cope with Windows.
My parents divorce actually spurned my OS platform divide. My Mom's house was Mac based and my Dad's place had Wintel PCs. In fact I have used almost every major release of the Microsoft OS. Windows NT 3.5, Win 3.1, Win 95.
Then finally I was upset with Apple and their lack of a new OS before Steve Jobs took charge and actually shipped Mac OSX. I did the unthinkable and got my first Windows PC a Pentium 3 running Windows 98. Soon I succumbed to the marketing hype and shelled out fifty clams for an upgrade to Windows ME. That was quite a bad choice and I was probably better off with Win 98. Soon after that I got a received a copy of Windows 2000 Pro from a friend out in a Redmond software company. And it was good. It was mostly stable, robust and powerful. It was super paranoid about all things USB and if it did not want to run a game by god you were not going to run it on Windows 2000.
Later on I partitioned my HD and installed Redhat Linux 7.3, 8.0 and 9. It was very informative but I still kept around Windows 2000 just in case and to do some things that I could not do in Linux. I had not planned on getting Windows XP and was possibly considering a move back to Macintosh for the next generation of computers for me.
Two weeks ago my desire for a laptop got the best of me and I got a new eMachine Widescreen M5305 notebook. This came with Windows XP Home installed on it and I have never seriously considered installing Linux on it for a number of reasons.
1. The power saving and sleep features of the hardware are built for Windows.
2. I have never successfully gotten DVDs to play on Linux
3. I also was never able to install an emulator on Linux to play old games.
I wanted a desktop replacement laptop that I would not have to worry too much about so I stuck with Windows XP.
So enough history. How do I like Windows XP Home? It actually has worked out really well.
Moving from my old PC to this one was actually pretty easy. My external USB 2.0 powered hard drive really helped in moving all of my personal files and programs to the new machine with this new fangled OS.
All my emulators and software applications work just fine on this new OS. It came with MS Works, IE and Outlook Express but I prefer Open Office, Mozilla and Mozilla mail but I had no problem setting them up and sort of enjoy the irony of using open source software on the most modern Microsoft consumer OS. I have not run into any problems getting my PC games to work.
Almost all my old PC hardware worked just fine and those that needed drivers were easily downloaded and installed.
My USB hub, USB 2.0 hard drive, USB keyboard, mouse, gamepad, WiFi networking card and digital camera worked just fine without having to install extra drivers.
My cheap ass scanner, and my Wacom tablet needed drivers to work right but I still give windows XP very high marks for and almost perfect compatibility with the plethora of hardware that I threw at it.
Multimedia is a dream on this. Quicktime files, Mpeg, MP3, and Flash you name it. They all work great with the OS and unlike Linux you can actually enjoy the content instead of trying to figure out how to get it to work.
So what do I not like about Windows XP.
1. I can't seem to uninstall Windows Messenger without things freaking out.
2. Windows Media Player has the foundation for the next generation of Digital Restriction Management technologies built into it.
I still have to see if the Digital Restrictions Management features in Windows 2005 ( Aka Longhorn ) will be as invasive and un-agreeable as people speculate. I plan on sticking with Windows XP until we get a better idea what a MS-DRM based world will be like.
I don't like the fact that I can not trust the standard security features and built in programs. I have to use a third party firewall because there is new online holes discovered in the browser or OS almost on a weekly basis. I don't like how I have to use a third party virus checker because of the hundreds of thousand viruses out there that can infect the OS. I don't like how I can't use the built in web browser for the fear that it might be infected with spyware from some Active X loop hole or malicious script. I don't like how I can't dare to use Outlook Express because I do not know when a new VB script based Outlook email virus will strike and cripple a good number of net users. I mean to have a email program that has scripting enabled that can take control of the main OS. How can the benefit of the feature outweigh the massive security hole it creates? I just don't know.
Microsoft's security and reliability problems are such a major factor that I do not know how they are going to sell a DRM based OS to the mass market. If Microsoft was know for their security and reliability than I would not be quite as worried. They have an image problem and people have a hard time trusting Microsoft.
Using a Windows computer is much like buying only the most popular brand of, shoes, cars, fast food, music, politics, religion and clothes. You know there is less controversial alternatives that might be better for you in the long run but the real world desire to be a part of a majority has it's distinct attractiveness.
Windows XP : It is the best Microsoft OS out there and it is what all the popular kids are using. You want to be popular don't you?
Jake at June 2, 2003 
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Comments
I think the best thing about XP is the fact that almost every piece of hardware you buy works automaticly with the OS without having to use any drivers....of course you will want to update drivers regularly as a rule. It is a lot less of a memory hog than 2000 was and i was able to migrate to XP from windows ME (which is an utter pile of crap) without having to reinstall any of my GFX programs except for 3dstudio-max....which uses that damn licensing system CDILLA. Here is a list of the software that I was able to migrate successfully when I upgraded.
Adobe Photoshop7,Illustrator9,Premier,After effects..... Macromedia FreeHand,Director,Authorware,FlashMX,DreamweaverMX,....whew....
Posted by: pete at June 2, 2003 8:48 AM
I use XP because no other Windows OS wants to work on my custom built PC properly.
Posted by: l33t k1w1 at June 2, 2003 12:09 PM
i'm still happy w/Windows 98 Plus! thanks!! :D
Posted by: Lilly at June 3, 2003 6:14 AM
I agree XP is great with just about any hardware you can throw at it, but when you do throw something at it that it doesn't like you can have a hell of a job making it to work.
I also don't like Windows Messneger, and don't bother uninstalling it but use XPs wonderful sharing to stop even the system from reading it :).
At the moment I'm running Longorn Alpha 4008 (which is a very nice, fluffy and BLUE ui), and apart from the bugginess you'd expect in an alpha it looks like it should be fun. HOWEVER like Microsoft have said, this is going to be a major step in migrating software & such. A lot of software I've tried doesn't work or doesn't work properly on here (Norton Antivirus, 3ds Max 5, even MS's own msn messenger 6), of course I assume by the time Longhorn is released the necessary updates will be ready but still upgrading to this is going to be a big job. I'm not sure how long I'll be running it for, but even when I upgrade permenantly (which i plan to) I'll keep XP arround because it's just such a super OS.
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