After all the speculation that Windows XP might not ship until next spring or might be held up because of potential conflicts with the Xbox game machine introduction or might...well, you get the idea, Microsoft yesterday planted a flag.
It's official: Windows XP will ship in 167 days, 21 hours, and 53 minutes, at least as of this writing (2:07 p.m. PT on Wednesday). I know this because a few minutes after the conference call, in which Jim Ahin announced the official ship date of October 25th, the Airborne Express guy showed up with a small package from Microsoft.
INSIDE WAS A SMALL DIGITAL CLOCK set to count down the days, hours, and minutes until XP ships. Think you have a lot of pressure at work? If XP fails to ship as promised, all of Microsoft's influentials presumably now have a clock to tell them exactly how late the new OS becomes. At least I presume the clock starts counting up once it reaches the release time.
And if the little clocks sitting on desktops all over the country weren't enough, Microsoft has erected a large countdown clock at its Redmond, Wash., corporate campus...where visitors and employees alike can be reminded what awaits them when the ticking stops. (Want a clock of your own? Microsoft has one on its official Windows XP site.)
With Microsoft having put a big hunk of corporate credibility on the line, I think we can expect to either see XP in stores as promised or a fair number of Microsoft execs "retiring" if it doesn't. But the big challenge isn't getting XP out the door, it's getting people to buy it.
I REALLY LIKE XP, and I am using the beta now on two or three machines in my home office, but most of the reasons I have for recommending it are, well, subtle. It really does improve the experience of using a computer, especially for inexperienced users. The help system in Windows XP is significantly improved over Windows 98. Help resources are easier to find, and it's now possible for a support person (or friend) to log on to your machine remotely to fix a problem for you.
Windows Media Player 8 is an improvement over 7, especially in that it now plays DVDs. The operating system does a better job of supporting digital cameras and printing pictures without the need for additional software.
I DIDN'T THINK THAT WOULD get you to line up outside the store hours before the official release, the way people did with Windows 98, just to get one of the first copies of the new OS. Nor will the new user interface; it's an improvement over the old one, but it's really a bigger deal for new users than for people who already know their way around a PC.
