Thanks JimF for this one. TechTV is airing a half-hour special on Windows XP tonight at 6:30pm, 9:30pm, and 12:30am Eastern. If you have DirecTV it"s on channel 354.
Eight months ago, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates showed off Microsoft"s new Windows XP operating system for the first time and promised a revolution in how people use computers.
Since then XP has been praised for its robustness and stability. At the same time, it"s been criticized as another illegal extension of Microsoft"s monopolistic power.
Following the embarrassment caused by constant crashes of Windows 95 and the delayed releases of Windows 98 and 2000, Microsoft was determined to create a new OS on time and bug-free. So in late 1999, Gates and company started building what was promised to be Microsoft"s most stable operating system ever.
Code-named Neptune, Odyssey, and eventually Whistler, the OS was officially called XP -- for "experience."
"When we started the XP project, which was coded-named Whistler, we had a vision," Gates said. "The vision was to take the experiences that people have today and make them better."