Windows XP….the long awaited version that is supposed to revolutionize the way we think about Windows. This is the largest and most important upgrade since the release of Windows 95. Without a doubt, the release of Windows XP has been touted as a pretty big deal. It is designed to close the gap between consumer and business level operating systems from Microsoft. Was it little more than a makeover, or does the operating system really deliver? Let’s take a look.

Windows XP pretty much marks the end of the two seperate levels of operating systems that are traditional of Microsoft. In the past, as you know,  Microsoft had Windows 95, 98 and ME for the consumer, while NT and 2000 were meant for the more robust users. Windows XP merges the lines together with its’ inherent 32-bit kernel and driver set from NT and 2000. Both versions of XP (Home and Professional) share the same basic structure, with the major difference being the Professional version incorporates some features that make it more suitable to the business world such as portable user accounts, logon validation and on-disk encryption.

The changes in XP over previous operating systems are pretty profound. First of all, the look is completely different. It has the same basic structure that Windows is famous for, but many elements of the design have been changed. These changes have made it powerful enough to handle new and emerging technologies (although USB 2.0 and Bluetooth are not yet supported). More importantly for the consumer, XP finally offers the stability only NT or 2000 users have enjoyed. For those of you using 98 or especially ME (arghh!), XP will be worth your money just for the increased stability. For 2000 users XP is not really a necessity, but it is still a cool upgrade.