Microsoft's Plans to Issue Updated Version of Windows 95 Now In Question With DOJ Action, Reports CMP's Computer Reseller News
MANHASSET, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 20, 1997--
-- Win95 Update, Which Includes IE 4, Seen as a Stopgap Measure Prior to the Arrival of Windows 98 --
Today's Department of Justice action against Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and its Internet Explorer 4.0 bundling practices may throw into question a planned update to Windows 95 that was to integrate the browser, according to a report in CMP's Computer Reseller News. As a stopgap measure prior to the arrival in the channel of Windows 98, Microsoft is planning ship to computer manufacturers within the next few months a new version of Windows 95, tentatively called OSR 2.5.
The updated release will consist of the most recent version of Windows 95 (OSR 2.1); updated software from America Online, CompuServe, AT&T and The Microsoft Network; and the integrated Internet Explorer 4.0 desktop code, sources told the publication.
U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno today said that Microsoft has violated terms of the 1995 court-ordered consent decree by forcing computer manufacturers to license IE 4.0 as part of their Windows 95 licensing agreements.
Microsoft executives refused to speculate on the impact that the amended Java lawsuit filed against Microsoft by Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:SUNW), calling for Microsoft to halt the distribution of IE 4.0, might have on the updated operating system release. Currently, manufacturers are delivering IE 4.0 to customers buying new systems by providing the IE 4.0 CD along with the hardware, rather than preloading it on the system itself.
Microsoft began notifying original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of its plans to provide updated Windows 95 code within the past two weeks. Microsoft is aiming to provide them with OSR 2.5 code by late this year or the first quarter of 1998, Phil Holden, Windows Product Manager with Microsoft, told Computer Reseller News.
''From the channel perspective, OEMs need a three- to four-month window to test and deliver a new OS,'' Holden said. As a result, if Microsoft holds to its current plan of sending Windows 98 to manufacturing in the second quarter of 1998 as announced, many OEMs will be unable to preload the operating system on new machines until the third or fourth quarter next year, he said.
One official with a major Microsoft OEM, who requested anonymity, said he did not see why Microsoft needed the update. ''Users are already downloading IE 4.0 and installing it themselves,'' he said. ''Why do they need us to provide (IE 4.0) to them?''
Yet another OEM, also requesting anonymity, said, ''We hear we're supposed to get the (OSR 2.5) code in mid-December. After that, because of our OEM agreements with Microsoft, we have 60 to 90 days to make it available.''
OSR 2.0 is the update to Windows 95 that Microsoft delivered to OEMs in the fall of 1996. It provided an enhanced file system, DriveSpace update, NetMeeting, Pentium MMX support and a host of other networking and communication enhancements. Microsoft followed up the 2.0 release with the OSR 2.1 update, also made available only to OEMs, that added universal serial bus support to the list of features.
Published by CMP Media Inc., Computer Reseller News has a circulation of more than 115,000 and reaches readers with the product trends and industry news needed to sell comprehensive technology solutions. The publication's news coverage is also available via e-mail through CRN Direct. This free, customizable daily newsletter -- available in both text and full-HTML formats -- allows users to choose up to 20 companies, products and trends to track. Registration for CRN Direct is available through CRN Online at crn.com.
CMP Media Inc. (Nasdaq:CMPX) is a leading publisher of newspapers and magazines about technology. With U.S. publications focusing on computers, electronics, information technology and the Internet, it serves the broad technology spectrum: those who build it, those who sell it, and those who use it. All publication titles, including WINDOWS Magazine, InformationWeek, Computer Reseller News and EE Times, along with the company's other Internet products and services, can be found on CMPnet at cmpnet.com.
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