Just In: Windows XP Sneak Peek!

As promised, Microsoft offered a sneak preview of Windows XP at yesterday's Experience Music Project (EMP) in Seattle. The event, which featured Microsoft executives Bill Gates and Jim Allchin, provided a first public look at the new Luna UI and other exciting features of the next version of Windows, which will be available in the second half of 2001. Gates says he was personally involved in creating Windows XP, which focuses on the home and business desktop markets. A server release of the next version of Windows 2000 is due in late 2001.
  
"People want to do more and more with their PCs," Gates says. "Windows XP builds on their dreams, taking the power and adaptability of the PC to a new level. It delivers on our vision of bringing the most advanced Windows ever to home users, unlocking the true and amazing potential of everyone's PC."
  
Windows XP is based on the idea of integrating "experiences" into the OS. For example, XP introduces the Luna look and feel, which the company says is very easy to use, yet incredibly powerful for all types of users. The new UI facilitates task- or activity-based computing and is the most significant update to the Windows interface since Windows 95.
  
In addition to the new UI, Windows XP provides unparalleled integration with digital media. At yesterday's event, Microsoft demonstrated a variety of the features that will improve users' digital camera and scanner, digital music, and digital moviemaking experiences. Microsoft says that Windows XP-based PCs will be at the center of home entertainment, with easy links to portable music devices, video devices, and other consumer-oriented hardware.
  
"Windows XP represents a major shift in personal computing," says Microsoft General Manager John Frederiksen, "and XP best represents this new direction of enabling experiences. . . . With Windows XP, the power of the PC is extended to devices, Web services, and applications to let users do more than ever on their computers."

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For higher-resolution versions of these images, please visit my exclusive Luna report on the SuperSite for Windows!