Windows XP - the verdict

Another year, another Microsoft OS. People queuing down the street outside PCWorld, ridiculous record-breaking stunts outside HMV, another pop star who once beat the 'No Logo' drum sells out to swell their bank account. But who cares? It's just a few bug fixes, isn't it?

Anyone who tries to tell you this is missing the point by a country mile.

Make no mistake, the launch of Windows XP is the most significant software release in years. Why? Because it will be key to deciding who owns virtually every consumer of information technology on this planet.

On one hand we have AOL Time Warner. The company owns a huge percentage of the internet access market. It also owns a large proportion of the media. That means it controls content you want to see and the environment in which you see it.

It also has a direct billing relationship with its customers, making it as much part of subscribers' lives as a mobile phone operator.

On the other hand we have a jealous Microsoft. It wants to own you too, and it doesn't like you sleeping with the enemy. Sure it owns the environment you work in, but that's a passive environment.

AOL is an active environment - you click on things because they give you information. With Microsoft you click on things to make other things work -or at least that's the theory. Sure you might use Windows, but you don't have a monthly direct debit with Microsoft. The software was probably pre-installed on your PC.

These are the things Microsoft wants to fix. And XP is a vital staging post in that fix.

Technology like Passport puts Microsoft in your face. It's key to your every move in the Microsoft world. If you have a Microsoft Passport, you are a Microsoft citizen.

XP also will be the way Microsoft tries to usher in a direct billing relationship. Controversy has raged on this issue but don't expect Gates and Ballmer to give this one up. Being on that list of monthly direct debits is where he wants to be. On your desk, in your pocket, in your face, and best of all, in your bank account.

So let the battle commence - it's up to you who owns you. Choose wisely.

For full coverage about Windows XP, go to http://www.silicon.com/xp