Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : MSFT Internet Explorer vs. NSCP Navigator -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (17662)	2/26/1998 12:26:00 PM
From: Jay Rommel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24154

IE4: To bundle or not to bundle? Microsoft Issues Windows 98 Beta 02/25/98 Newsbytes, Wednesday, February 25, 1998 at 15:44 HONG KONG, CHINA, 1998 FEB 25 (NB) -- By Neil Taylor, IT Daily Microsoft [NASDAQ:MSFT] has officially released the first and final public beta edition of Windows 98. Release 3.0 of the new beta is the first step in Microsoft's short but intense marketing campaign for the successor to Windows 95. The finished product is scheduled for commercial release by June at the latest. Not surprisingly, journalists at the launch event were more interested in the inclusion of Internet Explorer than in the system's latest features. Whatever the result of the US Department of Justice lawsuit, currently suspended until April, Elsie Kung, product manager for Microsoft Hong Kong's desktop and business systems division, said Microsoft would go ahead with the bundling of the browser with the operating system. "Our position on IE 4 remains the same. Our position is that IE 4 is not a bundle, it's more of an improvement." Should the suit go against Microsoft, Kung said there were no plans to release different US and international versions in order to continue bundling Explorer overseas. "There's no plan B," she said. "As of now, IE is part of the enhancement of the operating system. It's not like an extra product that we just put in the box." Besides the Explorer question, Microsoft staff were faced with the challenging task of promoting the new operating system, while avoiding knocking Windows 95 or giving the impression that the new program could be used instead of Windows NT Workstation. "Who's it aimed at? Definitely the consumer. It will be a cool upgrade for home users," Kung said. She added that the program would also be targeted at the small to medium-sized enterprise market, where many companies may have hardware limitations. "NT workstation offers you more reliability, more features for enterprise users." Windows 98 contains a large number of refinements, bug fixes, and new features. Installation has been improved for both home and professional users, with troubleshooting wizards and a new feature named Batch 98, which allows network managers to install the OS on multiple machines simultaneously. Disk management has been greatly improved, with the long-anticipated upgrade to FAT32, which cuts cluster size down dramatically; in the case of drives of one-two gigabytes, cluster size can be reduced from 32 to 4 K. A conversion utility has been included so that upgraders can convert their drives without loss of data. A wide range of scripting and networking enhancements have also been added, including PPTP and support for multiple modems. Improved hardware support includes Universal Serial Bus, DVD, IEEE 1394, which allows connection of high speed devices (up to 400 megabits-per-second) and hot plug and play. Macintosh users will recognise another Mac standard in support for multiple displays. Windows 98 can now support up to eight simultaneous displays running on a single machine. This feature will allow users to run, for example, a hypertext markup language (HTML) editor in one window while viewing the results in another. Officially, minimum requirements for the system are a 486 processor, eight megabytes (MB) of RAM and 70MB of hard drive space. Unofficially, staff conceded that the true minimum should be a Pentium 100 megahertz (MHz) with 16MB of RAM and up to 300MB of hard drive space for a full install. The third beta of the traditional and simplified Chinese edition is currently under testing in Taiwan and should be released in two to three weeks, said Kung. Microsoft is selling the final release version to its US and Canadian customers for US$29.95 plus US$5 shipping. The software has a built-in time limitation of December 31, 1998. Reported by Newsbytes News Network newsbytes.com