Microsoft launches its Windows XP, a next-generation operating system for personal computers Thursday, amid hopes that it can spark a revival in the ailing high-tech industry.
Microsoft contends the new system is the fruit of unprecedented technological innovations that will transform the experience of the PC, but critics say it will merely tighten the company's stranglehold on the world's computers.
Microsoft and its industry partners -- including Intel, which recently launched its new Pentium4 chip -- plan to spend US$1 billion on the launch in an effort to bring the computer industry out of its worst-ever slump.
The launch of XP (a play on the word "experience") will also herald Microsoft's first major product campaign since its bruising, still ongoing US antitrust battle. It also faces the possibility of stiff fines from a parallel probe in the EU.
Microsoft, which was found last year by a federal court to have abused its monopoly in the Windows operating system, has already modified several XP features in an effort to mollify its critics while the case is pending before a new judge.
For instance, Microsoft allowed computer makers to reconfigure the valuable "desktop" space to put offerings from Microsoft competitors -- such as America Online and Real Networks -- on their machines.
But critics say the software titan is excessively using XP to steer customers away from rival software to Microsoft products for items such as music, digital photography and instant messaging -- further squeezing competitors, essentially the same thing that prompted the company's antitrust woes.
Several states, which have joined the federal government lawsuit, have promised to again sue the company if XP takes Microsoft down monopolistic paths.
A version of Microsoft's Windows operating system runs on more than 90 percent of the world's computers. An operating system is the crucial, basic computer software that allows a machines components to work together and run other software, such as word processors or spreadsheets.
XP is Microsoft's bid to finally integrate several different operating systems into one based on a singular software code, based on the company's NT system, a venerable, business-based operating system know for its stability, never a real Microsoft hallmark on consumer machines.
The new system is also the computer industry's next best hope for a reversal of fortunes. In an industry first, computer sales have actually declined this year. Companies like Compaq, Gateway and Hewlett-Packard are hoping the demands of XP will force consumers to their retail outlets for beefier machines.
Windows XP requires a whopping 128K of memory and a 300Mhz processor, though the system really breathes with 256K of memory and processors of 500Mhz or more.
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