"why you care about windows 98"
SIFT THIS -- Whether you like it or not, Windows 98 will be the best-selling title for 1998. I know Windows 98 is just an exercise in packaging. I know it's just the past three years of bug fixes and performance improvements thrown into a box with some gee-whiz Internet bits. I even know that Bill Gates isn't expecting to see major sell-through compared to Windows 95. It's still going to be the #1 title of 1998.
Here's why:
We've already talked about Windows 98 semi-devious Internet-based upgrade ability. The gist being that as bug fixes or drivers for the operating system become available, you can download and install them from the Internet via a web page. The caveat here being that the web page sports ActiveX controls which means you pretty much have to install Internet Explorer.
Seems like a good strategy for boosting browser market share - anytime the user wants to access a source of information controlled by Microsoft, well, slap a ActiveX control in the middle and you're suddenly enforcing use of Internet Explorer. Problem is, Microsoft doesn't exclusively use IE as a forcing function, they've built Internet functions into the OS and that is where the jaw dropping features lie.
A companion set of programs known as the Plus! 98 Pack shipped alongside Windows 98. The programs included in this package fall into three categories: utilities, window dressing, and games. Many of the actually useful utilities and games are merely lite or demo versions of larger programs, but since I've installed the pack, two programs have knocked my socks off in the same day.
The first to do so was the McAfee Virus scan included in the Plus! pack, a pretty standard virus scan package that lives in that little tray at the bottom right of your screen. Checks out your executables and pretty much stays out of the way. That is, until one morning when I fired up the machine. Upon logging in, the program was asking me, "Hey, I'm a bit out of date, wanna update me?" Sure and with a click of a button, I updated my library of detectable viruses without even thinking about Internet Explorer.
The second epiphany occurred several hours later when I slid my Enya CD and the Plus! pack's Deluxe CD player fired up. I'd already looked at the utility. It appeared to be visually jazzed up version of the dull CD player that shipped with Windows 95 - yawn. Of course, when the dialog popped up asking if I wanted to download the track information over the Internet for the CD I just entered, well, I leaned over to the other computer and started writing this article.
The United States Postal Service revealed in "Snail mail grows up" You see, Microsoft has two powerful weapons in their arsenal. First off, they own the operating system. Second, they understand the Internet. Sure, there are the Microsoftians who believe that the key is Internet Explorer, but, fortunately, there are also those up North who know that every application can be radically extended using the Internet.
The enhanced programs in the Plus! pack were merely some of the obvious applications of having an Internet connection. The types of enhancements that you can't think of off the top of your head are the ones that are going to blow you away and, guess what, they'll show up first in Windows.
july 20, 1998
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