RE: [TCLUG:4131] FW: Your Open Source Acid Test Article.

["Eric Hillman" <ehillman@cccu.com>]

> > It's going to be another 2-3 years before the next major release
> > of Windows.  Microsoft themselves have grudgingly admitted this.
> > (I'm not 100% sure how NT5 fits into this, but since NT5 is now
> > Win2000, I think it's all the same deal.)
>
> Of course, this may be changing..  I've heard that W2K may end up being
> based around the old Win9x kernel.


	My understanding is that the next desktop/home MS operating system will be
W9x (or, to be blunt, DOS)-based, but that that release will *not* be
Windows 2000, which is still going to be NT, although its release date will
probably not be for at least another full year.
	I'm sure most people who use Win9x for the same reasons I do (that is,
playing ultraviolent and snazzy looking video games) nearly died of fear or
laughter when they heard that MS was going to try to make NT a home desktop
platform.  NT's support for graphics acceleration and multimedia makes
FreeBSD look like freakin' SGI.  This appears to be the realization that MS
themselves has come to, and so they're buying themselves a little more time.
	There's also been some rumor that MS's next desktop OS will be
WindowsCE-based, but that's too scary to even think about.

	I can't remember where I saw this (probably ZDNet), but there was someone
musing on the fact that MS has been saying NT is The Way since 3.51 came
out.  The only things they needed to overcome with NT in 1994 were:
	It's too resource-demanding.
	Poor multimedia support.
	Not stable enough.

	And now, half a decade later, MS is saying they're going to have NT on
everybody's home computer as soon as they fix their last few problems:
	It's too resource-demanding.
	Poor multimedia support.
	Not stable enough.

	But, hey, at least Win2000 will probably come with a web browser built
*right in*.