Announced in July 1999, Windows Me was initially known only by its code-name, "Windows Millennium." Internet rumor sites excitedly announced that Millennium would include a new HTML-based user interface featuring tight integration with consumer-oriented features such as MP3 audio, video, and the Internet. But the initial reports were pretty far off base: Though the company was indeed working on HTML user interfaces, they weren’t far enough along to be included in Millennium as the main user interface.

Microsoft claims that Windows Me includes a slew of improvements that fall under this category. Unfortunately, most of the changes simply gloss over the rough spots that Windows users have been cursing at for years. Windows Me shares the same unprotected memory model as Windows 95 and Windows 98, which means it’s still capable of locking up when an application program misbehaves.

The biggest changes in Windows Me are tools that let users work with digital media, including music, videos, and digital pictures. The new Windows Media Player version 7 plays MP3s and music CDs, just like RealJukebox or WinAmp. Users can copy tunes from CD to your hard disk, and use the included graphic equalizer to adjust the frequency response to suit the taste. The new Movie Maker software lets users assemble video clips from analog or digital camera links. Thanks to some nifty compression code, users can pack an impressive amount of video into a pretty small file. With a camcorder and a fast Internet connection, it’s a great way to share simple videos with friends and family. Windows ME has some improved tools for managing digital images, too.

Windows Me’s new Home Networking Wizard and improved Internet Connection Sharing feature can support easy installation of a network. With a pair of network adapters that use the Universal Serial Bus, two computers can be hooked together in under 10 minutes. Windows Me includes a new version of Internet Explorer, which is more tightly integrated into the operating system than ever before.

    An entirely new idea in computing, BeOS was designed to satisfy the higher processing and memory requirements of today’s digital media. Work with audio, video, image, and Internet-based applications, and edit files millions of gigabytes in size, simultaneously, in real-time.

BeOS is the only operating system that supports and takes full advantage of from one to eight processors automatically. No software reconfiguration is needed. BeOS boots in less than 20 seconds and has a lower applications load time. With BeOS, each application runs in its own protected memory space. So if one crashes, the system and other applications don’t even notice. Just reload the crashed application, and go without the tedious rebooting process. BeOS can be installed on common desktop or notebook computers alongside whatever is being currently run-Windows, Linux, UNIX, Mac OS, or anything else. At start-up, the boot manager included with BeOS is used to choose the system to load. BeOS has a 64-bit file system to manage disks and files millions of gigabytes in size. BeOS understands common file types and disk formats i.e Data from files created in other operating systems can be read and even copied.

Media &Graphics Features

Media services of BeOS allows enabled applications to read and write to files in standard data formats, including QuickTime, AVI, MPEG-1, JPEG, TIFF, BMP, Targa, PNG, PPM, WAV, AIFF, and AU. It also supports plug-ins for other formats. The microsecond resolution allows consistent, accurate, reliable playback and recording of digital media that

s tracked down to 1/1,000,000 sec. Result: immediate responsiveness. Anti-aliased outline fonts are standard in BeOS, providing smooth text onscreen, as well as on paper. It supports OpenGL providing industry-standard, high-resolution 3D graphics and rendering. BeOS allows the video card to draw images directly from your computer’s memory. Thus fast video and high frame rates in animated sequences are achieved.

BeOS comes with built-in Web server, Web browser, POP3 e-mail client, ftp client, ftp server, telnet client, and telnet server, all of which are removable or replaceable by third-party software. It allows connections to Internet Service Providers using the standard point-to-point protocol. BeOS is built with the same native communications protocol as the Internet (TCP/IP), so it is easy to glide online right out of the box.

Many useful applications are being developed for BeOS. Nearly a thousand powerful, applications currently are available for BeOS, including audio, video, graphics, development tools, Internet and networking, office productivity, utilities, games, and more. BeOS is the first and only operating system to deliver the speed, processing power and stability of a high-end multimedia workstation on ordinary, low-cost desktop PCs.