Woundup XPerience triumphs over hope

And holograms a go-go...

As reported yesterday, Microsoft has officially announced the names for both Whistler and Office 10. After much speculation from Paul Thurrott and Chris Pirillo, the names have been confirmed by Microsoft. I received an e-mail from a Microsoft spokesperson last Friday stating that the "XP" name was just speculation and that the odds of it being called that were slim to none. Hmmm... this is from Microsoft's press department; people like you and I heard about it two weeks ago. Anyway, to read Microsoft's plan for XP follow this link.

A report by CNET also touches on the naming subject, and comes up with several reasons why Microsoft is using "XP". It's claimed Microsoft will stick to using years for the applications within Office 10, such as Word 2002, Excel 2002, etc...

Thurrott also reports that Microsoft wants to compete with Linux even more by opening its source code. At the recent LinuxWorld event, Linux maniacs attended the biggest Linux conference/convention held every year. They laughed when they heard Microsoft wanted to have a booth to showcase its products. "So instead, Microsoft made an open-source pronouncement, of sorts, while the show was in progress," reported Thurrott. "It seems that Microsoft has opened the Windows source code to hundreds of its biggest customers, as well as some universities and government agencies." Talk about competition! Microsoft holds over 90 per cent of the operating system market, so why is it even bothering about Linux and Linux users? The people who have access to this code cannot alter it, but rather work with it to find... oh, what are those called... bugs! For the Reg take on this "open" source initiative, check here.

I know there are some people out there who aren't too sure about making a Boot Disk for Windows; especially Windows Me. A small computer enthusiast Web site has a detailed write-up of how to create a boot disk in Windows Me, where it may seem a little different after Microsoft took out DOS.

ActiveWin passed over some information about Excel performing an illegal operation when you attempt to format cells. I know there are a lot of readers who use Excel on a daily basis, which is why I'm mentioning this. If you're an advanced computer user, and know about the Window registry then you can find more information here. But I wouldn't suggest you mess around with the registry if you don't know what you're doing.

Microsoft recently announced what it will be doing about security issues in the future. There's been a lot of talk about the product key here at The Register, but Microsoft doesn't mention this at all - instead, a more advanced hologram on the CDs. Microsoft does mention the "Product Activation" anti-piracy technology, which will only allow a user to install the application a fixed number of times. This is pretty much like what has been reported here, just without the product/registration key. Microsoft should make an announcement about this in the upcoming EMP event.

Finally, remember when you saw an add for a $600 computer with a 1GHz processor in the newspaper, and you went into the store to get more information and the price is actually $1000 AFTER a $400 MSN rebate? Well, that tricked me a couple of times, if it weren't for that, I would probably have fifty computers by now. But as reported here yesterday, Microsoft is going to drop this rebate after a year and half, and introduce a new program, which will offer one year free service. To read more about this, follow this link.

After the upcoming Experience Music Project (EMP) - where Microsoft will give more information on Windows XP - I'll try to get my hands on the latest Build of Windows XP and give my point of view on it.