Good Day begentle-ga,
Thank you for your question. I will begin by listing some of the
important features of Windows XP.
Windows XP Home edition feature list:
- Built-in Internet, home networking, and real-time voice, video, and
instant messaging support.
- Ability to Invite a friend or support professional to connect to
your PC over the Internet to fix a problem or answer a question
(Microsoft?s ?PC Anywhere?)
- Improved Management of digital pictures, music, video, DVDs, and
more.
- Users can quickly transfer footage to their computer for editing
that's easier than ever. Windows XP Home Edition includes all the
great software customers need to help them create, edit and share home
movies.
- Windows XP can help you publish pictures to a Web site, or shop
online.
--
Source: Shop Microsoft
URL: http://shop.microsoft.com/Referral/Productinfo.asp?siteID=11052
To find out more detailed information about the features available in
Windows XP Home Edition, please see Microsoft?s official product
features web site:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/evaluation/overviews/default.asp
Windows XP Pro includes everything that the home version offers, plus:
- Premier mobile support for the ability to work offline or access
your computer remotely
- Greater security, including the ability to encrypt your files and
folders.
- Built-in support for high-performance systems.
- Integration with Microsoft Windows Servers and management solutions.
--
Source: Shop Microsoft
URL: http://shop.microsoft.com/Referral/Productinfo.asp?siteID=10798
To find out more detailed information about the features available in
Windows XP Pro, please see Microsoft?s official product features web
site: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/evaluation/overviews/default.asp
Search Strategy: Google search on ?windows xp?+?features?
What are the most common operating systems?
Popularity of an operating system will vary on the tasks that a user
performs on their PC. Below are generic statistics on which operating
system was mostly commonly used.
EpistemeLinks.com
URL: http://www.epistemelinks.com/Info/OpSys.aspx
Due to the great detail and large amounts of numbers in a table, I am
only providing a link. There are 14 operating system rows, and 7 time
period columns (from 1998 to 2002, Quarters 1-3).
Search Strategy: Google Search for "operating system usage"+"2002"
Developing Code / Programming Statistics:
Total votes: 460
247 users listed Windows as their #1 choice
100 users listed Unix as their #1 choice
79 users listed Linux as their #1 choice
17 users listed Mac as their #1 choice
17 users listed ?Other? as their #1 choice
Source: About.Com
URL: http://cplus.about.com/gi/pages/poll.htm?poll_id=7978732328&linkback=http://cplus.about.com/library/weekly/aa040502a.htm
Search Strategy: Google search on ?operating system poll?
?Operating System Usage from the Google Zeitgeist? ? September 2002
URL: http://nerv-un.net/~rastor/
Search Strategy: Google search for ?operating systems usage?
42% used Windows98
20% used Windows2K
20% used WindowsXP
6% used WindowsNT
5% used MAC
4% used Windows95
1% used Linux
2% used other operating systems
This is a great page with monthly statistics going back to November
2001. Great for comparing, watching growth, or fallbacks of operating
systems. Unfortunately there is no total number on user participation.
Should you require specific numbers by industry, or geographical area
(if available), please forward me the details on requirements.
Which applications are associated with which operating system?
General trends are:
Windows is most commonly used for day-to-day desktop computing. It?s
popularity, flexibility, ease of use, and wide range of software
available, make this operating system the most popular selection for
day-to-day computing.
Applications such as Word, Power Point, Excel, and Access are almost a
requirement in dealing with the industry. These applications are of
course native to windows, although there are some other third party
packages that can open and save in the formats required by the native
apps.
Being the industry leader, Windows has integrated other more
specialized features and software for the average user: Image editing,
Internet networking, server software, etc. For the day-to-day use,
Windows will do on those fronts for most. Adobe has a great line up of
products for Windows, which include PhotoShop, a powerful image
editing/creation application. Jasc Software has also done a great job
of giving Windows users the ability to create professional looking
graphics using its Paint Shop Pro. The Internet server database SQL
server apps are widely available and supported on WinNT. Still, I
would put Windows main focus on day-to-day desktop publishing,
Internet browsing, and gaming.
Mac on the other hand is more of a ?creative tool?. Animation shops,
movie editors, and graphic designers prefer the Mac on the graphical
fronts of computing. Although Windows has a wide range of products
that can come very close to some of the Mac?s editing power, Mac is
still preferred and more powerful.
For Internet server software, Linux and Unix is a main choice. It is
free, very flexible, and much better at resource management than any
other system currently available. It is also much more stable for
these purposes. A distro of Linux (distro simply refers to
distribution package: Linux is free and some companies bundle what
they consider best features, and make it into a ?boxed? item called a
?distro?) such as Redhat 7.3 or Mandrake 8.2 comes with all software
necessary to host web sites, manage user accounts for access to the
server, and other server software. These releases of Linux come with
many other software packages such as word processors that can equal
surpass in features and power to the Microsoft Office Suite. However,
ease of use is where Windows has its edge. Although Linux is free,
very powerful, and has a lot of the software available that the
average Windows user would require, it is a tough system to install
and maintain.
In summary, Windows is recommended for the average user that likes to
do a large variety of tasks. Mac is for the very creative user,
although it does provide excellent (and better every day) support for
every day tasks and software. Linux, and Unix are for techies who
require something closer to a server than a desktop PC, or simply are
savvy enough with the OS and don?t want to pay the thousands of
dollars in software which the Windows users do (just the operating
system, and the office suite with taxes here in Canada is over
$1,000).
This information is based on my work done for the local cable company
and industry information learned through my interest in the field. I
have visited over 1,300 households during the last nine months while
working for the cable company, and have learned a lot about people,
and what they use for their daily computing.
Is there a need for more than one operating system?
The answer to this question hinges on a different question: What do
you need to accomplish using your computer?
If you for example are Linux savvy, you will probably do your work
with great efficiency. If however you wish to play some of the newest
games out there, you will not be able to do so reliably under the
Linux operating system.
Globally speaking, there is a need to keep multiple operating systems
around. None of the available operating systems have so far managed to
provide excellent support for all areas of computing. They all
specialize in something, but not in everything. Unless you only need
to perform tasks only in one area, you will probably find a need for
other operating systems sooner or later.
Thank you for your question. Should you require more details on any
specific subject or scenario, please ask for a clarification.
Regards,
Slawek-ga |
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