Oh! Two dot Oh!

Newsweek knows it, and has made a lovely wordplay out of it ("Putting the 'We' in Web"). Bloggers fear it, or endear it, or simply always hear it. We should just embrace it and get over it. As much as everyone hates taglines and buzzwords, it is here. And despite pundits everywhere insisting that the 2.0 moniker actually means nothing, it does.

Saying that 2.0 is used because people want the buzz again, is true. Saying that 2.0 is just what 1.0 wanted to be, is true. Saying that hearing 2.0 makes you want to puke is.. well, understandable. Well, then puke. People with a sense of perspective, like Tim O'Reilly, don't find 2.0 so hard to understand. And why should it be ? 1.0 was primarily one-way, 2.0 is equally two-way. What's so hard about that ?

Things follow from that, obviously. Eddies of complexity will appear and are doing so. Great ! Flickr, mySpace, Digg. Maybe it makes you giddy trying to classify everything at once, shoehorning things into a single cage. Then don't! Or if you insist, let the explanation be longer than one sentence.

It used to be 'the big three-oh' that everyone was afraid of. Now, the next generation is staring at two dot oh with equally frightful eyes.

Don't fret. Once you hit it, you'll see it's not painful at all.

Windows User Calibration

Reading about Windows Vista(tm) is a bit like watching a gory movie. I do it just for kicks, for the shivers, the joy of listening nails screech down a blackboard. So when John Gruber made Andre da Costa his 'Jackass of the Day', I had to read it. Head over to da Costa if you want to read at length (and I mean at length!) about what's new about Vista.

Da Costa's post got me thinking, and I headed over to PT's site (another gory stop), the 'Internet Nexus', one of Paul Thurrotts many web ventures. He mentioned that the next version of Windows will be offered in at least six flavours. Eight, if you count the European Versions separately, and even more if you make allowances for the 32 / 64 bit differences. That's heavy into the double digits. For one operating system. One - in theory.

The list currently is: Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise and Ultimate. All except Starter come in 32 and 64 bit versions, and Home Basis and Business will have said separate EU versions. Everyone will have their taylor-made version of Windows, it seems.

Imagine customer calls to your favourite ISP in the near future. As if the poor support personnel at the other end of the hotlines didn't have enough compatibility issues to tend with. Apart from XP, ME, 2000 et al., they will require you to specify which flavour of the current OS you are running.

I seriously think Microsoft is going down the wrong avenue here. If this trend continues, can you imagine where this will leave users for the next major revision ? How do you decide which version is the right one for you ? I suggest MS incorporate a query before each installation.

I call this "Windows User Calibration". Before you are allowed to install the OS, a program determines your computing needs. It finds out how advanced your computer knowledge is and gauges its installation accordingly. It will start by asking you simple questions about your basic understanding of computer technology. This will determine how - in future situations - it will go about giving you advice when troubleshooting.

If you come across as a real novice, you get the 'Starter Version'. If you know the difference between GB and GHz you are allowed to install the Home Basic Version. If you know what IEE1394 refers to, the speed of your USB 2 port, and what BIOS and MSDOS stands for, you get Home Premium. Anything to do with ROI, FTSE or NAFTA, you are clearly headed for one of the Business packs. This way the system knows exactly who you are and what software components need to be on your computer. It will be able to classify you easily, and calibrate all of the components adequately to your abilities.

Real geeks, of course, will head for the Ultimate Edition. Or they will just install Linux and be done with it.