Microsoft
tones down
the hype, but it's still pumping out new, stronger operating systems
by Alan Zisman (c) 1996 First published
in Business in Vancouver
, Issue #360 September 17, 1996 High Tech Office
column
Alright,
all
together now: Happy birthday, Microsoft Windows 95, happy...
Doesn't
quite work as
cause for major celebration, does it? In fact, despite Microsoft's
$100-million publicity pitch just a year ago this past August 24th,
in a lot of ways, it seems as if the software giant sort of missed
it on that one. The big event of 1995, in retrospect, wasn't
the launch of Windows 95: it was the change of the Internet from a
fad to what appears more and more to be the beginning of a new model
of the way we will be doing business, communicating, publishing, making
and displaying art, and more. (Ironically, the Internet is fulfilling Bill
Gates' slogan of a couple of years ago: "Information
at your fingertips".) Not to say that Windows 95 is a bad product--it
isn't--but it's ultimately just another software upgrade, the one
that finally put a pretty face on millions of Intel-based personal
computers.
Microsoft
seems to have
learned a couple of lessons from all this. First, starting last
December,
it has made the Internet the focus of much of its activities. And
now, as it releases yet another Windows version, it's doing it much
more quietly.
No, this
isn't Windows
96. In fact, it seems increasingly unlikely that there will be a
product
with that name. Maybe a Windows 97--we'll see. Instead, the company
hopes that Windows NT version 4.0, with its much more serious-sounding
name, will be the next generation of its operating system software
to be installed on millions of computers used by big business networks.
Although
it boasts the
same attractive, well-designed interface as Windows 95, this Windows
isn't particularly aimed at home users or at small businesses:
Microsoft
sees Windows 95 as the platform for them. Instead, NT 4.0 is aimed
at users who need industrial-strength stability and U.S.
government-certified
security.
NT claims
to need a
minimum of 12 megs of RAM, but that will only let you start up the
operating system. If you actually want to load a few applications
and get some work done, count on at least 24 to 32 megs. (By
comparison,
most users find Windows 95 pretty perky with 16 megs or so.) Luckily,
the price of RAM has dropped tremendously over the past year. and is
now less than one-quarter of what it cost when Windows 95 came out.
As well,
NT 4.0 needs
special drivers for all your hardware, so make sure all your
accessories
are on the list of officially supported hardware. Unlike Windows 95,
it can't make do running old DOS drivers while it waits for the
manufacturers
to create new versions. And NT lacks the sophisticated hardware
detection
of last year's home model: some users have been installing Windows
95 first just to let it report on the system's hardware, then writing
down the results in order to properly install NT.
But on
new, supported
hardware, with enough hard-drive space and lots of RAM, this new
version
of NT lives up to the promises: it's rock-solid, and yet, especially
on a new machine with a Pentium Pro processor, it will outperform
Windows 95, which is unable to take full advantage of that high-end
CPU. Because NT is fully 32-bit, it allows the Pentium Pro to run at
full speed.
Fans of IBM's
OS/2, also due out with a new version, code-named Merlin, may protest
that OS/2 is also a well-designed, exceptionally stable and fully
32-bit operating system, and that it too makes full use of Pentium
Pros. It is, however, unable to run the new generation of 32-bit
Windows
software applications that require either Windows 95 or NT, so despite
OS/2's many advantages, it's not an option for users tied into running
the latest Windows applications.
NT comes
in two flavours
at two different price points. NT Server is aimed at running the local
area network server, either replacing or working alongside a Novell
Netware system. An Internet server is bundled in the package. But
Microsoft is hoping to sell many more copies of NT Workstation, aiming
this version, stripped of the network-server features, at the business
desktop market. (And I do mean desktop: if you're presently getting
about two to three hours per battery charge, with Advanced Power
Management
to conserve battery power, expect to get 45 minutes with NT. And if
you're using Win95, you're used to plugging in PC Cards, or removing
them, while your computer is up and running. Not so with NT--you'll
have to shut down and restart to change your cards, so stick with
Win 95 on your laptop!)
DataQuest of
San
Jose, California, estimates 1996 sales of almost 46 million copies
of Windows 95, compared to four million copies of NT. But it estimates
21 million copies of Windows 3.1 will still be sold this year, mostly
to big businesses which have hesitated to migrate to Windows 95.
Microsoft
is hoping that as corporations upgrade their hardware and software,
the new version of NT will be the natural replacement, finally putting
old DOS and Windows to rest.