Operating System: XP For Hardware

First Look At Windows XP

October 25 Microsoft will release their new operating system Windows XP. They claim it is the biggest upgrade of their operating-system family since Windows 95 was released, both with respect to 'look and feel' and the technology behind the scenes.

Windows XP will be available in two versions, Home Edition and Professional, so it is meant as a replacement for both Windows 95/98/Me and Windows NT/2000. The Home Edition is simply a subset of the Professional Edition, but we felt that you would be more interested in the Professional release.

We tested the Build 2505 Evaluation Copy of XP Professional. The computers we installed it on had the following specs:

• Pentium 3 running at 876 MHz/933 MHz
• ASUS CUSL2 815E Solano 2 motherboard
• 256 MB/128 MB RAM
• Western Digital ATA 100, 18 GB
• 3Com EtherLink XL 10/100 PCI
• NVIDA RIVA TNT2, 32 MB
• Aopen F50L 15" TFT LCD Monitor