Microsoft Ships Its Biggest OS Upgrade Ever—Early

Product: Microsoft Windows XP
Price: Home Edition: $199 ($99 if upgrading from Windows 98 or later). Professional Edition: $299 ($199 if upgrading from from Windows NT 4.0 or later).
Requires: 233-MHz processor, 64MB RAM (minimum); 300-MHz or better processor, 128MB RAM

Details about Microsoft Windows XP have been leaking out for almost a year. Perhaps the biggest surprise surrounding its debut is Microsoft's decision to release the operating system a month before the previously announced date. As for the product itself: Windows XP is Microsoft's latest—and dare we say greatest—operating system to date.

Cynics would say that the move is just Microsoft's way of derailing injunctions by state attorneys general that hope to delay the release of Windows XP. PC makers can sell new machines loaded with Windows XP on September 24, which increases the legal and practical difficulties of making any court-ordered changes to the operating system. Boxed versions will ship on the previously announced release date of October 25. (www.pcmag.com)