The Demo Site

When Windows XP was launched by Microsoft in October 2001, people preferred to share the family computer (hence fast user-switching, but it didn't even give the option of a decoder to play DVDs. XP was meant to run in 64MB, and support for 2GB of memory looked like it was made to provide plenty of headroom. It was also a 32-bit operating system, with its 64-bit version aimed at Intel's new Itanium chip. Nowadays people need a system that plays DVDs and high-definition Blu-ray movies, which makes Wi-Fi and home networking easy, and this supports both large memory spaces and the recent 64-bit processors. When a DVD can hold 4.7GB of data, and a Blu-ray disc 25GB or 50GB, a system originally crafted to max out at 2GB is hardly optimal.

It true, when XP was launched, there were a lot of people who said it wasn't necessary, and they were contended using old DOS-based versions such as Windows 95, 98, and 98SE. No doubt this was for sure, but technically it was not appropriate. XP provided dramatic advances in power and reliability. But then XP was incompatible with many old programs and peripherals, it had to get new drivers, and the interface needed some relearning. In general, people are quite contended with what they know, so there was lots of resistance. Until three years back, we went through a similar but smaller transition with Windows Vista. This brought into being new plumbing, toughened the security (XP had proven embarrassingly insecure) and provided a complete 64-bit version for widely-used 64-bit processors. But then again, Vista was incompatible with a host of old programs and peripherals, it needed new drivers, and the new user interface needed relearning. As always, there was resistance.
However, n this case, the resistance had good success. Microsoft hadn't got enough support from what it calls "the Windows ecosystem" when it came to software compatibility updates and good quality drivers, Vista's hardware requirements were much too high, and the security features didn't go down well with people. But the need for the Vista's advances has not gone away. That's why Microsoft has created Windows 7 on the same foundations – just as it built XP on the foundations of Windows 2000 – while taking care of Vista's "pain points" such as security alerts. Windows 7 tends to do a lot better than Vista while using fewer resources, and both Microsoft and its ecosystem partners have enabled to make it compatible with more old applications and peripherals. Business users can even run their ageing stuff virtually in XP mode.


It is true that not everyone will upgrade. There are always early adopters, hell-bent to be among the first to use a new system, and late adopters, who will stick on to the old stuff long after they would have been better off upgrading. This is so since Windows has more than a billion users, both groups will be huge. Even if Windows 7 is the most accomplishing operating system of all time, and assembles up 300m users by the end of next year, it is still less than a third of the installed base. Windows XP will be in the majority for quite a few years more.