In computer news this week:

A review of the new Windows Millenium edition:

As if Microsoft doesn't have enough problems, their newest operating system isn't moving off the shelves as they had hoped. Maybe they're distracted by all their legal problems.

Do we really need a new operating system, that really is just a modification of Windows 98? If you get caught in the revolving door of upgrade fever, you will never have stability. An interesting fact in the PC marketplace today is that most new products and operating systems are consumer driven. This means that the new features are supposedly demanded by consumers, as opposed to businesses. Windows Millenium edition is actually the 3rd upgrade to Windows 98, not a new operating system.

While it does have some new features, many of the new features can be downloaded for free from Microsoft, including the new windows media player and IE 5.5.

The hardware requirements include a Pentium 150 processor with 32 megs of ram and 320 megs of available disk space. In actuality this means you would want a much faster pentium processor, and at least 128 Megs of ram.

Prices are $ 59 for the upgrade from Windows 98 and $ 89 from windows 95 until January; then they go up. For new users they are $ 109 and $ 200 respectively.

Windows millenium edition contains some new system safety features that are currently available from 3rd party software vendors. This includes being able to restore your system to a previous date when everything was working fine. However, this feature is not rated as highly as existing third party software which does the same thing.

Probably the biggest disappoint of windows millenium is that it runs slower than windows 98 in most benchmarks, on most software. This is the true kiss of death, and I wonder why Microsoft would introduce such a product.

Another big feature of Windows Millenium version is that it will boot up somewhat faster. However, this only applies to new pc's, not to upgrades. So why bother?

You don't want to upgrade any of your software unless you can justify the benefits of the upgrade. If you can stay where you are with what you've got, and be productive, you don't need to upgrade, unless you're aware of some new available feature you absolutely cannot live without.

Another thing to consider is that upgrading your operating system is major surgery on your computer, and you want to backup all your critical datafiles before you upgrade. Anything can go wrong.

So it appears that you can live without the new version of windows, although it will become the standard operating system on all new pc's. You may not have the newest operating system, but you've still got the fastest.

For Raw Bytes, this is Frank Delaney

POB 222 Spangle, Wa 99031 (509)245-3736 Email: fdspokane@aol.com