Neither flood nor famine nor pestilence nor federal intervention will prevent Windows XP from being released on Oct. 25, according to Microsoft.
In a conference call with reporters on Friday, Jim Allchin, Microsoft's vice president for Windows, said that concerns expressed by lawmakers and privacy groups about Windows XP are completely unfounded. "The product that I see written about is not the product that I'm building," he said.
He also said the company expects to make the self-imposed deadline and has no contingency plans for the possibility that the government might seek an injunction against the release.
On Wednesday, Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York) sent a letter to the Justice Department asking its antitrust chief "that he not settle with Microsoft unless they agree to a global settlement providing open access for competitors," Schumer said at a press conference.
Schumer said that he believed Windows XP would make it difficult for consumers to use software made by Microsoft's competitors. Specifically, he said, products of New York companies such as AOL Time Warner and Kodak might be adversely affected by XP's release.
That's because XP comes bundled with instant messaging and digital photo applications -- which are also made by AOL and Kodak -- and a sign-on for Microsoft's MSN Internet service provider, which rivals AOL's main business.
But "you can use as much of this product that you want or as little as you want," Allchin said on Friday.
For example, regarding the firewall security application in Windows XP: "It is so great. You don't even have to think about it," he said. "But if you don't want to use it, you don't have to use it."
For emphasis, he added: "People love this firewall."
And, incidentally, the same thing goes for much of Windows XP, a preview version of which has been released to a few hundred thousand people -- people are telling Microsoft that they love it to death.
On the conference call, Allchin read some glowing reviews from people who've tried it.
"People are in fact sleeping in their offices as necessary to get this product finished," he said. "Frankly, we just believe in our deepest hearts about the advantages this product has."
Indeed, the company will spend $200 million over four months on a "global" television and print advertising campaign for Windows XP. That's twice the amount Microsoft spent for the last major release of Windows, in 1995.
And with all that money floating around, Allchin said, everyone in the technology industry is excited about XP's launch. This may not seem so, since AOL -- one of the industry giants -- has been fairly frantic about the product recently.
On Thursday, it signed a deal with Compaq to grant AOL's icons the sole rights to XP computers sold by the manufacturer, and it is seeking similar deals with other companies.
In the Compaq machines, MSN will only appear in XP's Start menu, but not on the desktop.
Allchin seemed peeved about this move. "Hiding features from consumers -- I don't think that's a good thing," he said. "This is not only about MSN. This is about whether consumers can find other technologies (we've added) to the operating system. We're into choice."
"The bottom line is, the industry needs this product," he said. "Let me tell you, the industry is pumped on making this happen."
