The new Windows

It's been a long time coming.

In fact, there were some who wondered if Windows 2000 would show up in time to justify the millennial moniker.

And when it finally hit the market on February 17, it's unveiling was absolutely underwhelming.

Remember when Microsoft dropped Windows 95 on us. The marketing campaign was stunning. Win 95 was the first computer operating system to have its own theme song - by the Rolling Stones no less.

But when Windows 2000 was unwrapped for the world, well, sure there was a big convention in San Francisco, and Bill Gates offered his keynote address sharing stage space with a giant laptop, and Carlos Santana and Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) were both there - for some reason - but there was no huge marketing campaign and nary a Stone in sight.

You couldn't even get a cocktail at the early-morning launch. Everyone was drinking coffee.

So why is Microsoft being so quiet? Could it be that the operating system on which Mr. Gates is banking the company's future just isn't up to snuff?

Nope. Windows 2000 is solid, reliable, stable, fast, and a justifiable upgrade - for many users.

But not all.

Windows 2000 actually comes in four flavours. Windows 2000 Professional is the one most people will be using and the one we will be discussing. There's also Server, Advanced Server and Data Centre Server.

The bigger your business, the more you are going to need it. If you are already using Windows NT 4, then you will want Windows 2000, because Win 2000 should actually be called Windows NT 5.

The big news is that Windows 2000 is actually stable. Sure the claim has been made before, but this time stable means stable. Legions of users who have become accustomed to rebooting their computers every few hours will just have to get out of the habit. Windows 2000 is virtually crash-proof. (I really hate saying something like this because something nasty is sure to show up that fries the operating system).

Because of a memory protection scheme, mischievous programs that lock up will not freeze the rest of the system. There's even protection from poorly-written device drivers.

Windows 2000 has also been shown to be faster than both Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 Workstation, despite its 29 million lines of code and a minimum 650 megabyte hard drive imprint. It even shuts down quicker than Windows 98, which is pretty handy if you're trying to get home before the boss has a chance to track you down with some new work.

Also, Windows 2000 supports symmetric multiprocessing, so that if you happen to have a pair of 800 MHz processors on hand, you'd better chain that system to floor. It might take flight. (I have a couple of computer pals, however, who say BEOS is the only operating system that takes full advantage of multiprocessing).

I personally love the new Windows File Protection feature. This little utility watches over the system, keeping close guard on critical system files, like those nasty DLLs setup programs love to overwrite. If a crucial file is changed with an outdated or unauthorized file, Windows 2000 silently restores the correct file.

There has also been a major upgrade to system security, although it should be noted that this Achilles heel has constantly been the source of Microsoft patches and upgrades as hackers find new ways to get at your data.

There is support for the Kerberos protocol so that networks can use encrypted passwords rather than plain text.

An encrypting file system can encode every file on the hard disk and the new operating system is built to incorporate smart cards and other identification systems not based on passwords.

So, its all great news and there's nothing to worry about. Yeah, right. This is Microsoft we're talking about. There are some downsides to the new operating system, enough to give some second thoughts about the upgrade.

First of all, to take advantage of everything Windows 2000 has to offer, you are going to need the hardware. As mentioned before, you'll need a good whack of hard drive space - 2 GB is recommended and 650 is the bare minimum .You'll also need 64 megs of RAM. It does actually run on a 32 meg system, but 64 is suggested and 128 is actually what Windows 2000 really likes. Microsoft says a 133 MHz Pentium-class computer is the minimum requirement, and would probably be fine if you don't mind waiting a couple hours every time you save a file. And just when you think you have all the hardware you need, there's a good chance, especially with older systems, that Windows 2000 won't work with it. After you install Windows 2000, you may suddenly find that your sound card, DVD player or scanner won't work. And there won't be much you can do about it until manufactures start pumping out the updated device drivers over the next few months.

When I installed it Windows 2000, for example, it wouldn't recognize my ancient Dexxa mouse. I can use a newer mouse. But I like my Dexxa mouse and I want to use it NOW!

There's also a good chance that some of your software won't work. Norton Utilities and Partition Magic, and probably any other disk or file management software, need to be updated to handle the new Windows 2000 NTFS file structure. (You do have the option of keeping the old FAT32 structure, but then you won't get all of the new features).

And of course, it has been reported that the new OS is already known to have at least 64,000 bugs. As is the tradition with Microsoft, we can expect to see a host of patches appear for download at the Microsoft site over the next few months. Some have already appeared at the Microsoft web site.

So in the end, Windows 2000 has a lot to offer small and large businesses, stability being the biggest selling point. Road warriors will like the improved notebook environment, with a real plug and play system, improved power management and file synchronization. For the home system, however, most users might be better off waiting a few months for the successor to Windows 98, currently code-named Millennium.

MILLENNIUM AHEAD

A quick look at the most recent pre-production release shows that Millennium has a bunch of new enhancements to offer the home computer user.

One of the most interesting is the new picture acquisition wizard which allows you to download a picture from a scanner or digital camera automatically. I had trouble getting this up and running because the system seemed unwilling to recognize my scanner, although a manual installation allowed the scanner to operate in the old-fashioned way. (I was also happy when Millennium recognized my sturdy little Dexxa mouse.)

The new Movie Maker utility allows you to capture audio and video to build your own movies. Because the files produced are relatively small, you can e-mail them to friends and family or even post them on your web site for downloading. There are a number of facets of Windows 2000 that are included in Millennium, including hibernation - the use of a standby mode to save the current operating mode to disk. A file protection feature also guards critical system files.

While the security and file management services are not up to Windows 2000 standards, Millennium promises to be just the thing for novices, homer users and big-time game players. (While we're on the topic, I really like the pinball game included with Millennium).

So in the end, small and large businesses all have something to gain from laying out US $319 for Windows 2000 Professional. (It's US $219 for the Win 98 upgrade and US $149 for the NT upgrade.) It might be wise, however, to wait a couple months while Microsoft works out the inevitable bugs. As for the home computer user - wait for the release of Millennium.