"Microsoft Prepares for Millennium Beta Saturday, Jul. 24 - 06:42 PM EDT
By Nate Mook, BetaNews.Com Webmaster
Microsoft took a step yesterday towards the first beta of
Windows Millennium by offering a Developers Release to selected
testers. This pre-beta comes much earlier than expected, but
does it contain the changes Microsoft had announced? Read on to
find out more about the release and Microsoft's upcoming plans for
the new operating system.
Consumer Windows, code named Millennium, was announced
early this month touting the removal of legacy I/O support.
Microsoft hopes that despite backward compatibility problems, the
removal of legacy specifications will not only improve stability and
make the operating system more robust, but also lower support
costs. This new PC design will be the guiding force behind the
EasyPC Initiative, a joint venture with Intel.
Two weeks ago Microsoft contacted potential testers, inviting
them to take a comprehensive hardware survey. Those who met
the qualifications were then allowed to test the Developers
Release. Some loyal testers felt Microsoft unfairly excluded them
from this early pre-beta, but most hold the sentiment of one
tester BetaNews talked to, who stated "my computer was not
useful for [Microsoft] at this point, so I'll just have to wait until I
can be more helpful." The Developers Release was made available
for testers late last night.
What's New
Cosmetically, the OS looks like its predecessors, despite
missing a startup screen, with a standard taskbar and desktop
icons. Size wise, this build is almost identical to Windows 98 SE,
at around 114 MB. Most of the changes in this release were made
behind the scenes, deep within the code. Microsoft has taken
their Windows 98 code-base and partially merged with it Windows
2000. Although this seems a bit strange to those on the outside,
Windows 2000 code is already non-legacy, making it a great
starting point.
DOS DOA
This Windows 2000 code merger will mean a great deal to the
new OS - the death of DOS. It was understood that the removal
of Windows 98's 16-bit backend would mean an end to the classic
OS, but for Microsoft to have done what they have this quickly is
outstanding. With no 'Reboot to DOS' option or 'Command Prompt'
looming in the Start menu, Windows Millennium has a definite
Windows 2000 shell feel to it. DOS is still there at this point, but
more or less hidden to the standard user. Although, this removal
of DOS also means exclusive MS-DOS applications and real-mode
drivers will no longer work in the new OS, which could cause
problems for some users.
The Future
So what does Microsoft have in store for Millennium in the
coming future?"
<http://www.betanews.com/article.php3?sid=story379a41548aab4>
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