GUI

Min requirements

Lets check out the requirements of an OS that takes nearly a gigabyte of hard drive space, and by default creates a 300 MB swap file. Microsoft says that XP should be able to run on a 233MHz machine with 64MB of RAM. I can't recall anything running on a 233 MHz machine right now. I'm probably right in guessing that some programs within Windows probably require more horsepower than a 233 MHz machine can crank out.

XP is fat.

RAM usage

I took a few snapshots of memory usage on my computer, and it is quite surprising. Somewhere around 80-90 MB are taken up just for OS specific reasons. Not too shabby for the amount of extra features that are packed into this baby, by comparison a common Win2K install eats up around 75 MB.

GUI enhancements

XP sports quite an update to its GUI, offering up quite an overhaul from what we've been accustomed to seeing. The last few versions of Windows have left a lot to be desired in terms of aesthetics. Sure we could change the background, a few icons and cursors, but we were always left with the same sort of stuff over and over again.

Process breakdown

Start Menu

If we take a peek over at our uber-brothers using Linux or LiteStep, the Windows desktop pales in comparison. Both of those further the level the way in which you can interact with your computer easily by a few orders of magnitude. Screw just making icons and a desktop. You could design an entire layout for your computer, embedding common functions and other assorted goodies. Robert, most of you know of him as the "The Romero", fiddles about with Linux mainly for that reason. Sporting the transparent IRC windows and a super cool background, shaming the conventional Windows desktop utterly, his desktop reaches well into the super dope region.

Purty?

Unfortunately, designing and working with Linux and LiteStep takes a bit more effort than the common person is used too. Heck, even adding a shortcut in LiteStep requires more effort than I'd care to put in. So what's my point then? XP seems to be bringing all this goodness over to the masses. Transparency (alpha blending), in the Windows desktop, was introduced in Win2K and will be more available for theme authors in XP. The modular UI is a huge part of XP, it's for certain that many attributes will be customizeable. Take a look at the screenshots; note that the Start Menu icon seems much fatter than before. Also look at what the XP theme does to the size of the windows. The corners are no longer square-like; they have a sort of rounded look to them. If this can be done to a relatively simple looking theme, there is no end to what a few talented individuals could churn out.

Whoa! Processor driver.

Familiar defrag

Take a peek at the fat Start menu, man that thing got huge. The big column to the right is essentially a list of the most used programs. The rest is pretty much self-explanatory. I didn't find this to be to useful, maybe it's because my usual routines don't come anywhere near matching this. In turning on this this view, the main icons on the desktop are all removed. My Computer, My Document, Network Neighborhood - all gone, you can of course re-enable them.