Microsoft to release new version of Windows
By Allison Linn
Associated Press
REDMOND, Wash. — Love it or hate it, Microsoft's Windows is "the most important tool that's ever been created," says Bill Gates.
Associated Press
"It's a tool for communications, for creativity — it's the basis for the entire software industry," Gates said in an interview on the eve of his company's biggest consumer product launch since 1995.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, left, was honored yesterday on the Nasdaq floor when he opened the session to commemorate Microsoft's 15 years of trading on the exchange and celebrate the introduction of Windows XP scheduled for today. Nasdaq Chairman Wick Simmons, center, and Vice President Al Berkeley were on hand to congratulate Gates.
Today, Microsoft formally releases Windows XP, a major retooling of the operating system that runs the vast majority of personal computers.
To some — including the U.S. Justice Department — Windows' massive reach creates a difficult quandary. As Microsoft keeps improving and expanding its dominant product, consumers may get a better deal, but competitors face the threat of being squashed.
And as Microsoft's software and Internet services become more pervasive, critics say so does the potential for breaches in information security.
To Gates, Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect, Windows XP is simply about saving computer users time and money.
"It's a value for consumers," Gates said. "Why are there headlights in cars? Why don't they make you go and buy those things separately?"
It's also about money: Desktop operating systems accounted for more than $8 billion of the $25.3 billion in revenue Microsoft reported for fiscal 2001.
Friends and foes agree that Windows XP is the souped-up sedan of the desktop operating system world. It offers new features for listening to music and playing videos, as well as for editing and organizing digital photographs.
"If you look at the value of the stuff that's in Windows XP, compared to the stand-alone packages you'd have to buy for the equivalent, that's many hundreds of dollars," Gates said.
