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So is XP worth all the hype? Grudgingly, we say yes. This major upgrade at long last ends the distinction between the corporate (and more stable) NT/2000 Windows and the consumer-oriented Windows 95/98/Millennium. XP provides similar variations of the same OS for both home and business: XP Home and XP Professional editions. On the outside, XP looks radically different from any previous Windows version. It's spiffier, with both aesthetic and functional redesigns, and features login screens for home and corporate systems alike--something many Windows 95/98 users have never seen.

Roger Kay, research manager at IDC, says the merger of HP and Compaq Computer is a bad idea for both companies.

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Gateway on Tuesday started taking preorders for PCs with Windows XP, as the company looks to get a jump on competitors. The PC maker will begin shipping the systems to customers in late September, Gateway spokesman Brad Williams said. Although Williams would not give an official ship date, PC makers earlier had pegged Sept. 24 as the date when Microsoft said they could begin selling computers with the Windows XP operating system.

Microsoft on Tuesday gave developers another test drive of its new Windows XP Embedded operating system. The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant debuted the second beta of the component-based version of the operating system that is used for building connections between client devices such as terminals, retail point-of-sale devices, kiosks and set-top boxes. The beta version of the operating system was developed in partnership with Bally's video casino-game organization, Fujitsu-Siemens' set-top box group and Siemens' factory robot group.

Windows XP, developed from the stable and scalable NT code base, is an operating system with enough compatibility and ease of use to send Windows 9x off to join DOS in long-overdue retirement. Windows XP, Microsoft's newest Windows client, was released to manufacturing last week, roughly two months ahead of its announced Oct. 25 launch date. In tests of code Microsoft is calling final, eWEEK Labs was impressed with Windows XP Professional Edition's performance and that its wide variety of new features are compelling but don't require hardware resources beyond those of Windows 2000-the operating system that XP Professional is set to replace.

Hewlett-Packard will acquire Compaq Computer in a stock swap worth about $25 billion, the companies announced late Monday. The deal, one of the largest in technology history, would merge two of the biggest names in computers, printers and computer servers, and would have total revenue only slightly less than that of IBM, the largest computer company. Carleton "Carly" Fiorina, the chairman and chief executive of HP, will become the new company's chairman and CEO, while Compaq's Chairman and CEO Michael Capellas will become president of the new entity. Capellas and four other Compaq board members will join HP's board.

Hewlett-Packard and Compaq are combining to form the second biggest PC company, with a significant presence in nearly every country in the world. But it's not like life is going to get much easier. Relentless price pressures, slowing PC sales, a sour economy, and the difficulty of merging two overlapping corporate bureaucracies that have been trying to shed employees during the past few months are just some of the problems facing Carly Fiorina and Michael Capellas, the respective CEOs of HP and Compaq.

At a recent meeting with Microsoft, I was briefed on the status of the company's upcoming new operating system, Windows XP, which will be made widely available October 25. Some of the information I received was previously known, but much of it was new and frankly, rather exciting. If you're interested in XP, you might be pleased by some of the changes Microsoft is announcing.

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It's not too early to start comparison-shopping for Microsoft's new operating system, as at least one retailer has already marked down Windows XP. Costco.com, the Web unit for members-only discount retailer Costco, is taking preorders for the upgrade version of Windows XP Professional for $184.99--$15 below Microsoft's list price. Microsoft last week announced that the estimated retail price for the full version of Windows XP Professional, the business version of the software, would cost $299.