Windows 98 delay no great inconvenience to PC users

In this story:

• Faster, more reliable
• Easier installation and upgrades
• Gates challenged to 'shock the industry'

May 14, 1998
Web posted at: 12:08 p.m. EDT (1608 GMT)

(CNN) -- Microsoft expects to spend about $10 million promoting the release of Windows 98 -- whether it's next month, as originally scheduled, or when Microsoft's legal challenges are sufficiently settled to allow the long-awaited debut.

That's a fraction of what Microsoft spent when it rolled out Windows 95 and a tip-off that the new operating system offers progressive improvement over its predecessor rather than breathtaking breakthroughs.

That is to say, consumers who have waited this long to replace a Windows 95 system that is showing its age will not suffer greatly by waiting a little longer.

Insiders who have used beta versions of Windows 98 say that it looks and feels better than Windows 95 and that it runs a little faster, crashes less often and offers improved sound.

But as Cathy Baskin, editor-in-chief of PC World puts it: "There's no compelling reason to rush out and buy it. It was already significantly delayed by development and programming difficulties. Originally, it was supposed to come out in August of 1997."

Windows magazine says the "bread-and-butter" improvements on Windows 98 "aren't features you can click on with your mouse, and you're not likely to ooh and ahh over them."

Even Microsoft's director of Windows marketing, Yusuf Mehdi, given an opportunity to rhapsodize about the new product, manages to restrain himself.

"Namely, you can launch programs faster, you can more easily use the computer and it's going to be more reliable," he says.

Easier installation and upgrades

Among the improvements Windows 98 offers are:

• Better network support.
• Easier installation and upgrades.
• Better use of memory.
• Do-it-yourself tools for fine-tuning and diagnosing problems on the computer.
• The ability to move icons to the taskbars and to stack and hide taskbars and toolbars to save space.
• Better support for the Universal Serial Bus, a plug-in that allows "outside the box" expansion to run as many as 127 peripherals without expansion cards, jumper cables, software drivers and the like.

"There are a lot of 'bug' fixes," says Baskin. "It's more of a maintenance upgrade as opposed to a revamped operating system."

The testers at Windows magazine found a number of things they were not pleased about, including the additional memory the new program uses. It takes anywhere from 70 to 85 megabytes for those upgrading to 300 MB for those installing it for the first time.

They also found that the menu reorganization was problematic, that the Internet Explorer browser is still prone to "maddening quirks" and that those conditioned by Windows 95 to certain techniques will have to unlearn them on Windows 98.

They even concluded that the status bar for URLs is too small.

Gates challenged to 'shock the industry'

Syndicated columnist Larry Magid said last month that he didn't think the changes in Windows 98 were worth the $109 retail price.

"I don't see a hundred dollars worth of improvement in my computer system," he said.

Mike Elgan, editor of Windows magazine, writes an open letter to Microsoft chairman Bill Gates in the magazine's May issue saying that Windows 98 has too many unwanted features and is too complex.

He challenges Gates to "shock the industry" with a bare-bones system with "modularity" that would make it easy for Microsoft and other companies to add applications, interface enhancements and other features. And for computer users to put on their computers only what they would use.

"We want a stable, compatible, user-customizable 'Windows Lite' containing only the features and applets we choose," he writes.

One of the issues Microsoft confronts in its legal challenges is the integration of its Internet browser, Internet Explorer, with its "active desktop," creating what critics see as a sinister attempt to control access to the Internet.

The version of the browser on Windows 98 is only slightly improved over its previous version. But for many consumers the issue is neither the web browser nor monopoly but how much Windows 98 costs and whether it makes computing easier and better.

Correspondent Greg Lefevre contributed to this report.

Special Sections:

• Target Microsoft: U.S. vs. Microsoft

Related stories:

• DOJ, states ready to move on Microsoft - May 14, 1998
• Sun to sue Microsoft - May 12, 1998
• Microsoft, DOJ timeline - May 12, 1998
• Microsoft fight looms: Antitrust action against software giant nearing, attorney general tells CNNfn - May 8, 1998

Related sites:

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• Microsoft Corporation
  • Microsoft motions, letters and press releases
• U.S. Department of Justice
  • Justice Department filings against Microsoft

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