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Microsoft is launching its newest
Windows product this week. Windows XP and Windows XP Professional will make
their debut on October 25, in what could be considered less than auspicious
market conditions. While these market conditions will surely impact the
sales volume of this latest offering in the Windows family in the short term,
we see a number of features that will make this OS readily adopted over the
course of time.
In a nutshell, Microsoft is offering a very user-friendly
OS with industrial-grade internals that will make the computing experience
not only less arduous for the end user, but also more consistent and
reliable. The core components of XP are the descendents of the Windows NT
code base, in the form of Windows 2000, which represented a significant step
forward in its own right in areas of stability and reliability.
The revamped user interface is the first thing most users
will notice, especially on the consumer side along with the wide array of more
“fun” applications now included in the OS. Video editing and CD burning are
sure to capture consumer user’s attention, as will audio and MP3 features.
Gaming features will appeal to yet another section of the consumer base. But
for the most part, we will ignore these features in this report, and focus on
the more industrial strength attributes of Windows XP, and specifically
Windows XP Professional Edition.
While we believe there are significant features of value
in the XP package – many that we will discuss later in this report – we also
believe it is important to point out exactly where this version of the OS
resides on the larger continuum of evolving operating systems.
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Where We Are Going
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In our mind, the XP Pro iteration sits astride a tectonic
shift in computing. XP Pro represents the last of the desktop-centric
computing platforms. As the computing environment moves ever more quickly to
a Service Computing-based model – like that of .NET or SunOne, we see the
overwhelming focus of the computing environment on OSs like Windows 2000 or
XP Pro diminishing.
But not entirely, and not instantaneously. In fact, the
XP Pro offering begins to show us just where computing is headed, and itself
is built to participate – at least initially – in this new computing
environment. By way of analogy we would offer up the following: XP Pro
represents the last of the great steam locomotives. It is fast, powerful
and largely self-sufficient. It provides the user all that is needed, yet is
bound by certain limitations in the areas of speed, efficiency and demand vis
à vis external market factors (air travel).
Looking ahead, the Service Computing environment by
contrast is much more like a high-speed bullet train, such as the French TGV.
This train performs many of the same functions as its steam-based
predecessor, yet it does so with greater speed, more comfort, greater
efficiency and with competitive aspects to market conditions (i.e., it’s more
convenient and less expensive than flying yet takes only a fraction longer).
Like the TGV, the Service
Computing model will require much more fastidious attention be placed on the
support infrastructure. Just as the TGV tracks, communication system and
safety features are deployed to allow for such high-speed ground travel, so
the network infrastructure in the Service Computing environment will have to
be substantially upgraded from its present condition.
That being said, we want to make it clear that XP Pro is
no wood-fired single stacker trundling down a single, narrow gauge railroad
track while the engineer shoos away buffalo with his whistle. Instead, XP
Pro would be more akin the highest refinements of steam engine travel, with
multiple tracks, first rate communications and signaling, and the comfort,
speed and reliability that those earlier trains simply could not match. Essentially, Windows XP Pro can run on
both kinds of rails. It can run on old “tracks,” as it were, yet is able to
operate on a limited basis on a TGV system as well.
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Service Computing in the Enterprise
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Service Computing offers a wide range of benefits and
challenges to enterprises and vendors seeking to sell products into this
computing environment. For most enterprises, the opportunity afforded by the Service
Computing model to customize applications on a departmental level, and to do
so on an ongoing and ad hoc basis, will bring real computing efficiencies to
bear. In the Service Computing environment, relatively low-level employees
will be creating applications for departments using collections of modular
components. Those applications will be built within a common architecture
(like .NET or SunOne) and can be distributed to the appropriate people as
needed. The applications will run offline as well as online.
In addition to more granular application development,
Service Computing will also provide users with the ability to capture their
work environment from virtually any computer attached to the network. This
feature will give users greater flexibility, and reduce redundant
configurations on multiple machines. For users, their digital self will
follow them around.
The Service Computing environment will give power back to
Line of Business personnel, allowing them to innovate in much the same ways
they did when they side-doored PCs and ad hoc networks on a departmental
level. What we saw in these early examples of grass roots enterprise IT
deployment, we will see in full force within a Service Computing environment.
Perhaps the only difference will be that such behavior will be officially
sanctioned and supported.
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How XP Pro Takes Us There
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While XP and XP Pro have a wide range of features that
are quickly and easily noticed, we are going to focus most of our attention
on more mundane, but important, features of the new OS.
First and foremost of these features is reliability and
stability. XP and XP Pro are descended from the Windows 2000 code base,
giving them superior reliability compared with Windows 95, 98 or ME. In
essence, it brings enterprise desktop reliability requirements to the home or
desktop business user. This improvement in reliability has been a long time
in coming for users, who have had to suffer though Windows 95, 98 and ME
instability for longer than is really acceptable.
Microsoft has also taken great pains to ease the set-up
process for most users. This time-consuming and often painful process has
resulted in substantial hair loss and tooth chipping in the past among
Microsoft users. The emphasis on improving the general experience of the more
technical parts of using a computer represents a continued effort to make
computing less of a specialized skill than it has been in the past.
Furthermore, startup, reboot and hibernate response times
have been greatly reduced, allowing the user to get to, or get back to work,
much more quickly. (This might seem a minor issue until one considers the
time wasted over the course of a year in finger drumming and mouse shaking.)
The Dynamic Update feature, which provides easier setup
by allowing for the collection of necessary drivers and software patches from
the Microsoft Web site, is also a feature that has caught our eye. Here, we
see the first glimpses of the future of computing; where much of one’s needed
componentry is assembled on an ad hoc basis using connectivity instead of
excess disk space. Automatic Update is also in effect during the general use
of the computer, offering ongoing updates and fixes. Such fixes in an
enterprise environment could be distributed either from Microsoft or from
within the firewall as well. While technically not a particularly difficult
implementation, its inclusion indicates that such features are only the
beginning of a much broader Service Computing model to come. To refer to our
analogy earlier in this report, we would argue that here we see XP Pro
bridging the gap between the advanced steam engine to the more modern TGV
model.
XP Home and Pro also offers the ability to set up home or
small office networks, allowing for a single Internet connection on a primary
computer to be shared by with others in the same immediate location. As
broadband in all its forms continues to penetrate more broadly in the market,
such a feature is a necessity in many circumstances; Microsoft’s inclusion of
this feature recognizes that reality. As a result of this growing awareness
of home and small office networking demand, Microsoft has included a
lightweight firewall product that sits on the primary computer. While far
from meeting the full spectrum of enterprise firewall needs, it does provide
a modicum of protection to the novice user that was not there before.
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XP Pro Most Notable Features
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Windows XP Pro takes this migration from a steam engine
to a high-speed bullet train several steps further.
Most notable is the IntelliMirror set of features. These
features alone provide another set of coordinates on the computing continuum
that leads to Service Computing.
IntelliMirror essentially allows a user’s profile, data,
settings and applications to migrate with the user within a distributed
computing environment. Essentially, the user’s computing self is stored on a
server; the user can then bring up his or her computing environment on any
compatible machine within the network. While this is an extension of features
found in Windows 2000, its inclusion in a more consumer-focused product
pushes the computing model – and demand for this model – out through the
ranks. As more and more people experience the benefits of accessing their
desktop from a range of non-personal machines, the value proposition of
Service Computing will make itself ever more visible. In this regard, we see
XP Pro as a substantial step forward.
Advanced users can take the XP Pro experience even
further down the path of Service Computing. Remote Desktop features allow
users to access to a desktop machine running Windows 95 or later. Such a
feature allows a mobile worker to maintain a single desktop environment
without the hassles of synchronizing all elements of two or more computers.
This feature, like IntelliMirror, offers a user a computing experience that
transcends the steam locomotive-like earlier Windows offerings.
Another feature that has caught the attention of many is
the product activation process. For the first time in North America, a specific
licensed copy of the operating system is registered to a specific combination
of hardware, thus enforcing the one license, one computer rule. While some
react negatively to the thought that they are being forced to comply with the
long-standing licensing terms, we find it hard to shed many tears over this,
as most bulk or subscription service customers would not receive
activation-required software, and those who have been double or triple
dipping will simply be required to pay for what they use.
However, this does raise an issue that will become very
important in the increasingly networked focus of computing, i.e., enforcing
licensing terms of Web Services and the other distributed components that
will ultimately comprise Service Computing.
While these components by nature would likely not be tied to a
specific combination of hardware, they will most likely need to be tied to a
combination of identifying factors such as hardware, personal profile,
location, encryption keys, etc. Hence, we believe the notion of software
activetion is a reality that will be become more prevalent, albeit hopefully
automated, as Web Services and Service Computing unfolds. Just where in the
network architecture these activations or authentications will take place is not
necessarily known; however, it would stand to reason that some form of user
directory would likely play a role. How Microsoft will ultimately position
its Active Directory and product activation technologies with respect to this
need remains to be seen.
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On the Outside
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Microsoft has not hidden all of the changes to this
offering from the user. While substantial changes under the hood have been
discussed earlier, it is important to note that XP offers an improved user
experience as well.
The company claims its has made great efforts to simplify
the user experience graphically by improving various common function views
like Control Panel, document folders and the like. The Start Menu, for
example, has been simplified to do away with the cascading columns of
subfolders and directories that pop-up on screen and only complicate
selection of the desired item. Users will be able to customize start menus
allowing their most heavily-used applications and files to be presented in a
less cluttered environment. Improving the bandwidth between the monitor and
the user’s eyeballs is both a necessity and a notable accomplishment.
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What It All Means
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XP Pro is going to be a revelation to many users. And by
this we do not refer to the new user experience, the cool widgets and toys
contained within XP Pro. Something much more fundamental is afoot here.
We believe that as users become more comfortable with
the various features that make XP Pro so network friendly – including
IntelliMirror, Roaming User Profiles, automated software updates, networking
and desktop management – the broader concept of Service Computing is going to
gain mind share. In fact, in many ways, XP is an excellent bridge between the
outgoing model of desktop-heavy, fixed, non-roaming computing and the more
mobile, user-centric and granular computing model that is waiting in the
wings. In many ways, Microsoft is chumming the water in a very effective
manner for its next big thing, the .NET initiative with XP.
XP Pro will drive more than mind share in enterprise
desktop users. As it offers glimpses of the opportunities afforded by Service
Computing, it will also highlight the necessary changes needed in
infrastructure and application development that must be in place for Service
Computing to take hold. While Windows XP Pro can use the network to provide
software updates and the like, it doesn’t have to. For now, it can function
on a stand-alone basis. But from what we’ve seen, we believe that XP Pro’s
most exciting features are those that integrate the desktop OS with the
networking demands of the computer user in the 21st century.
And make no mistake about it; Microsoft is looking into
the future. The XP Professional edition is a clear attempt to begin not only
painting a picture of that future but implementing it as well. .NET is one of
the architectures that will support our vision of Service Computing and we
believe Microsoft’s initial chumming of the .NET waters with XP Pro is a well
calculated move.
As XP becomes a more broadly disseminated operating
platform, it will bolster Microsoft’s attempts to bring a tighter focus on
the .NET initiative. In doing so, we see Microsoft stealing some of
archrival’s Sun’s thunder in this area, one that Sun has long claimed as its
own. While Microsoft is nowhere near declaring “the network is the computer”
as Sun has for the past five years, it is acknowledging that the desktop is
greatly enhanced and expanded by integration with, and leverage of, the
network.
Microsoft’s ability to continue
to leverage its ownership of the desktop gives it a powerful tool in
evangelizing its Service Computing architecture as a viable if not more
desirable alternative to Sun’s SunOne offering. As we move more toward the
Service Computing model, we see the ability of line-of-business personnel to
make more comprehensive IT decisions as growing substantially. While IT’s
role will not diminish overall, it will change dramatically. LOB people will
begin deciding what applications run where and for whom, while IT will be
increasingly consumed with the task of making sure the infrastructure is
there to support the Service Computing environment. As such, ownership of
the desktop – where LOB people live – will become increasingly important. The
value of Microsoft’s ownership of this part of the network will only increase
over the course of time as we move ever closer to the eventuality of Service
Computing.
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