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Windows XP
Sneak Peek
There are more goodies still to be seen under the Hood.
- Native Drag and Drop CD-ROM/RW support for audio and data CD
creation
- Enhanced ZIP archive folder support
- ClearType font antialiasing, primarily for TFT screens,
although it looks quite nice on a regular monitor
There's a lot more, and I could go on and on and on. One somewhat controversial addition is WindowsXP's new
Registration Wizard. Users of Windows XP will be FORCED to
register their personal copy of XP either over the internet, or
via phone, to keep their product functional. Some will argue, that
this is somewhat of a "big brother" tactic, while others
will laud Microsoft for attempting to stem the tide of software
piracy.
My take on this is that it probably WILL have a
significant impact on institutionalized corporate piracy, a long
standing problem with Microsoft and other application vendors, but
will have a negligible impact on the "underground" warez
scene. Microsoft's system will get hacked by someone, simply for
the joy of hacking it, and it will most likely be done long before
XP ships.
For those who obtain XP the proper way (actually go out
and buy it), there should be little cause for alarm, although at
this point, it is as yet unclear how this new protection scheme
will affect people like our readers, who are constantly swapping
hardware around in a mad frenzy to keep their "baby" up
to date. Indications are that the scheme may cause some headaches,
and in HDD and mainboard swap scenarios you are most likely going
to be forced to re-register the software.
We will be following up later in the beta cycle with some more in
depth looks at XP, and will continue to follow the controversy
surrounding the new registration system. Insofar as how the
operating system performs, it would be unfair at this point in a
beta cycle to start benchmarking, as we are quite a ways away from
the code-optimization section of the beta. Suffice it to say, it
should be familiar, and perform similarly to Windows 2000
Workstation in most areas.
Stay tuned for the next installment, as Microsoft WindowsXP gets
closer to being a reality on your desktop!!!
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