Windows Whistler

Windows Whistler

I have had several people send in Emails asking about Microsoft
Whistler and even though it is still in beta, (testing by users outside of
Microsoft), I decided to add an Installation guide. This is going to be real
short and straight forward… just read our installation guide for Windows98. That
is it, I have loaded it now several times and I was struck by the fact that
although it is basically a Windows2000 upgrade, the install process is more like
that of Windows98.

Okay, that was real short and sweet. But, I should point out a
few issues with Whistler.

1. This new operating system requires Windows2000 or at least
   Windows NT drivers. If you do not have them or Whistler does not like them… then
   using Whistler is going to be painful. I installed it on a PC with an older 35mm
   slide scanner and of course it had only Windows98 drivers available. These did
   not fit into Whistler's program and it about drove me crazy demanding a driver
   for the scanner. Every time it started it would request the driver, over and
   over again, as many as eight times. I finally disconnected the scanner from the
   SCSI card.
   
2. Now remember this is an upgrade for bother Windows Millennium
   and Windows 2000. A convergence of the two operating systems. So, one of these
   two loses out to the primary programming of the other, which happens to be
   Windows Millennium. What you say…??? Why is this important…?? The big issue is
   you lose DOS as the underlying base and with that said, you also lose the
   ability to play your old Dos games. Ta ta to them when you load Whistler.
   
   
3. Finally, if you thought upgrading to 128mgs of ram to run
   Millennium or Windows2000 cleanly and fast, Whistler is going to need at least
   192mgs or 256mgs of ram to really run clean. ( Do you remember when Bill Gates
   pontificated that we would never need more than 4mgs of ram???)
   

Okay, this new Whistler comes in a couple flavors, two to be
exact, (or so it is as of this writing), and that could change:

1. Whistler Personal Edition: intended for the home user without
   the server code and other features required to host web sites, DNS services and
   much more.
   
2. Whistler Professional Edition: this is of course the big
   brother to Windows2000 and blotted with all sorts of stuff unnecessary to most
   small business or home users. The price difference between the two has not been
   announced, but I am sure it will be quite painful if you wish the full blown
   Professional version.

There are a great many internal differences, especially if you
are upgrading from any Windows9x or Millennium product. One is the new
partitioning scheme of GPT and
I am not going to get into the logistics of
it, but if you are a techno-geek wanting more then read about it on Microsoft's
web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/HWDEV/storage/Whistler-GPT_FAQ.htm

If I had any complaint it is the new structure of Plug-N-Play.
It will absolutely drive you nuts if you are using any legacy devices, (cards or
peripherals that predate Windows9x). I had an older slide scanner connected to
one PC I installed Whistler. The manufacturer's web site only had Windows98
drivers and Whistler wanted no part of them. So, every time I booted Windows I
was forced to deal with at least eight popup windows demanding drivers. I
finally deleted all instances of the driver in Device Manager and disconnected
the scanner. Since I use this scanner a great deal I was forced to remove
Whistler from this PC and reinstall Windows98.

Summary:
It looks good… has
a most drivers built in you will need, but for any real changes it does not seem
worth the $120 for the Personal Edition. Microsoft needs to put out the source
code for Windows9x now that they are moving away from it and allow all the
world's programmers to rebuild and solve the issues that drive us nuts instead
of slinking along with more of the same… which is what you will find in
Whistler.