Windows 2000: Big Whoop

Same Old, Same Old

Okay, so we're basically still in Windows 95 land.

The world has changed pretty dramatically since then--if I lose Net connectivity here in the office, I go home and fire up the cable modem, for example. But the PC basically looks and acts the same.

Why is that? Here are several theories; pick and choose according to your degree of Microsoft paranoia.

First, since Windows 2000 is a corporate product, its intended customers (information systems folks) would run screaming from any major innovation in what their users see. The wish to avoid retraining everyone makes a lot of sense, but ... has the world stopped?

Second, user interfaces have never been Microsoft's strength. The only truly innovative user interface around is the upcoming Mac OS X's Aqua, and that's arriving far too late for Microsoft to copy in Windows 2000.

Third, Microsoft thinks there's no major point messing with the interface until voice recognition and natural language change things. That's a big push in the Microsoft R&D labs, and might give them something dramatic for all those billions of dollars they're spending. But I guess this is still years away.

Finally, Microsoft has realized that it doesn't control user interfaces any more. That control goes to the Web, and Microsoft just isn't going to rule the Web.

I'll subscribe to a piece of all four explanations. But I'm also happy that we won't be talking so much about operating systems any more.

Sure, Linux will make a run at Windows, even on the desktop; and sure, we'll have Windows on everything from smart cards on up.

But in the future, what we'll be looking at is the Web--on PCs and on Internet appliances. Operating systems will not furnish the great computing excitement of this decade. We'll spend more time thinking about the Web, what wireless info appliances will bring, and how we can change how we work.