So the Consumer Windows team had two alternatives: Try and hack
enough of the features out of Windows 2000 so that it would run
acceptably on typical consumer level equipment, or go back to the
old Windows 9x kernel and do another upgrade like Windows 98.
One of the odd things about technology, of course, is that just
about anyone can point to Windows NT/2000 and explain that it's
better. But why is is "better"? Is it really
better? The Consumer Windows team took a hard look at Windows 98
again and realized that it actually had some compelling qualities
that make it perfect for Consumers. In fact, it's everything that
Windows 2000 isn't, good and bad. So the decision to move
forward with a new version of Windows 9x was actually logical, once
they got over the corporate mindset of "NT everywhere."
Who says NT has to be everywhere anyway?
Goals for Windows Millennium
In late July, 1999, Microsoft made its second major announcement
about the next Consumer Windows. Along with the news that this
release would be code-named Millennium (Windows 98 was Memphis,
while Internet Explorer 4.0 was Nashville and Windows 95
OSR-2 was Detroit: I guess the days of city name betas are
over), Microsoft explained its goals for this new release and announced
that a "developer's preview" had been shipped to the top
Windows 98 Second Edition beta testers.
"The Consumer Windows Division is focused on truly making
computing easy for consumers," said David Cole, vice president
of the Consumer Windows Division at Microsoft. "We are excited
to reach this first milestone on the path toward delivering a
version of Windows specifically designed to enable consumers to take
full advantage of their PCs in the 21st century."
Microsoft came to the conclusion that the top areas to focus on for
Consumer Windows would be digital media and entertainment, the
online experience, enabling the connected home, and making the PC
"just work." With that in mind, Millennium will focus on
the following four key areas:
Words like
"easy" and "simple" appear over and over again
in Microsoft's literature about Millennium, and it's no wonder: If
you had to narrow these goals down to a single vague ideal it would
be this: Millennium must be simple for the consumer to use.
Two months after the Developers Release, the company produced the first major
release of its next Consumer Windows operating system, Millennium
Beta 1. Because this release didn't accurately reflect the fit and
finish of the final release, Microsoft elected not to provide the
media with review copies. However, Microsoft did show an interim
build of Millennium to select members of the press during Fall
Comdex in mid-November and it was apparent by that point that the
desired quality was coming together. On November 24, 1999, Microsoft
released Windows Millennium Beta 2. (Has anyone else noticed the
exact two month spacing between each release?) This release was
given out to the press for review, and its the version I'm looking
at here.
Incidentally, one major feature was dropped from Millennium between
Beta 1 and Beta 2: Activity Centers. Vestiges of this HTML-based
user interface component will be found in the online help system in
Millennium, as well as a few other applications such as System
Restore, but the full-blown HTML-based Activity Centers have been
put off until Neptune, the Windows 2000-based version of
Consumer Windows that will follow Millennium. According to Microsoft
employees I've talked to, Activity Centers were dropped because they
just weren't far enough along visually. Enhancements to the core
HTML engine in Windows are expected to make Activity Centers
possible by late 2001, however.
>> Continue to my review of Windows
Millennium Beta 2