Microsoft has made available the latest builds of its
64-bit version of Windows XP Professional and Windows Server 2003
Enterprise.
Each features a handful of improvements, including the Luna user
interface, Windows Messenger, Windows Media Player, infrastructure
support for Bluetooth, and the .net Framework 1.1.
Company officials also announced on Wednesday they would be
changing the name of the desktop version to Windows XP Professional
x64 Edition and the various server versions of the product, which
will now be called the Windows Server 2003 Standard x64 Edition,
Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition, and Windows Server 2003
Datacenter x64 Edition.
"With these builds we are essentially bringing the product to
parity with the 32-bit version of Windows XP Pro and Home.
"The 64-bit versions have the same UI and support for Bluetooth
and wireless. This will help our partners to build drivers for a
Bluetooth device as they would for [the 32-bit version of] Windows
XP Professional," said Brian Marr, product manager for Windows XP
Professional x64 Edition.
The major difference between the 64-bit version and its 32-bit
counterpart is its ability to directly address significantly more
memory, which is vital for higher-end workstation users and server
administrators.
"When we first started building the 64-bit product, it was
really just targeted at high-end workstation users. The OS to them
is a tool, more than anything else, to do things like build Cad
designs.
"But then we started seeing a huge amount of interest among
high-end enthusiast customers who were demanding things like Movie
Maker, Windows Messenger, and Media Player," Marr said.
There have been 125,000 downloads of the product's previous
build, according to company officials.
Microsoft has also added support for a range of languages,
including Japanese, German, French, Swedish, Spanish, Korean,
Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese.
It plans to add all of the security improvements contained in
the Windows XP Service Pack 2 to the 64-bit product.
"With the Service Pack [2] security improvements, the XP Pro and
Home features, and the code base reliability of [Windows] Server
2003 it makes for a very well balanced OS," Marr said.
Company officials said both Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 are still expected to be
delivered simultaneously sometime during the first half of
2005.
Ed Scannell writes for Infoworld