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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RTev who wrote (23175)	5/24/1999 11:43:00 PM
From: djia101362	Respond to of 74651

here's a review of Win98 SE WINDOWS 98 Second Edition Review by: Eric William May 24, 1999 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction To kick off Rivazone's User Reviews section, I decided to summarize my impressions of Microsoft's newest addition to the Windows 9x product family. Those of you familiar with Windows95 OSR2 will immediately see the purpose of Windows98 SE - a few minor updates made to the core operating system while fixing most of the bugs that slipped through the cracks when Windows98 was released last summer. As one of the 8500 involved in the SE beta-test, I have worked quite closely with 98 SE over the past 10 weeks. This (p)review is based on Build 2222, which was released to manufacturing on March 5th, 1999. Current Windows 3.x and Windows95 users will be able to purchase the upgrade CD for approximately $100, while those already using Windows98 can either download a Service Pack from the Windows Update site or purchase a "Step-Up" CD for around $20. SE is supposed to hit retail shelves in about 3 weeks, with the updates reaching the website in late June/early July. New Features? So, you're asking, what does Win98 Second Edition offer over your current OS? Well, if you're running Windows 3.1 or 95, the answer is obvious. 98 SE offers better support for newer hardware, including AGP, USB, Firewire, and APM. Also, you get all the system tools originally bundled with Windows98, including Registry Checker, Disk Cleanup, Maintenance Wizard, and the like. If you've already got Win98 installed on your system, however, the merits aren't quite as obvious. What you get with the Step-Up CD are all the bug fixes Microsoft has made to 98 in the last 11 months, plus several other OS enhancements. IE 5, NetMeeting 3, DirectX 6.2, a utility to disable the Pentium3 ID number, and more are all on the 98 Second Edition CD. Also, the Step-Up CD includes Internet Connection Sharing (ICS), the only addition that won't be available on the Windows Update site. ICS enables you to configure your home computer network to share a single connection to the Internet by assigning private IP addresses to the machines in your network. There are quite a few private utilities that do the same thing, but now it's part of your OS. Easy, no? For those of you who use Linux and/or WindowsNT, there is nothing in Windows98 SE that will interest you. Keep what you're using now. Impressions Personally, I enjoy the Win9x operating system lineup. (Eric holds up a shield to deter the on-coming flames…) Well, except for Win95 A. We all know how great (?) that was. So I enjoyed Win98 SE. It's the most stable Microsoft OS I've used, even rivaling OSR 2.5 and NT 4 for sheer staying power. The last year of bug fixes has greatly helped the 98 kernel. Performance on my Celeron 375/64 RAM based system is similar to that of Win98 Gold. Exploring the hard drive seems to be a little zippier, which I put down to the improvements in IE 5. Game performance is basically unchanged - the included DX 6.2 doesn't seem to improve or harm DirectX applications, and OpenGL and Glide also remain steady. Conclusion Windows 98 Second Edition is probably the best consumer Operating System to come out of Microsoft's offices in many years. I heartily recommend it to those still using Windows 95 or older on a system with a Pentium 100/32 RAM or more. Windows98 users shouldn't feel obligated to upgrade though. If having a year's worth of fixes and utilities on CD is worth $20 to you, go for the Step-Up CD. Otherwise, run Windows Update in 6 weeks and enjoy a more stable OS.

To: RTev who wrote (23175)	5/25/1999 1:12:00 AM
From: Sir Francis Drake	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Linux in a deal with IBM... nytimes.com <<NEW YORK (AP) -- A popular IBM program for network databases will be sold with a Linux operating system in a deal giving the upstart software company added legitimacy in a market dominated by Microsoft's Windows NT. The agreement to bundle TurboLinux and IBM's best-selling DB2 Universal Database program was announced today by Pacific HiTech, one of many small companies selling a version of Linux. The companies also agreed to collaborate on making future editions of IBM server software, often referred to as ''middleware,'' and TurboLinux work together more smoothly. For now, Linux poses only a marginal threat to Windows NT as the No. 1 software platform for the servers that run computer networks. But an affiliation with DB2, which recently eclipsed Oracle8 as the top database application for those machines, marks a new level of legitimacy for Linux, which is a fan favorite among software developers, but relatively new to the business world. ''It takes more than just an operating system to run a computing environment effectively,'' said John B. Jones Jr., an industry analyst for Salomon Smith Barney, noting surveys showing that data processing is a top priority among server operators. ''In the Linux space, the No. 1 prerequisite is database software, and IBM has the No. 1 position in the database market,'' he said, referring to Tuesday's deal as ''one more incremental benefit to the people who are considering using Linux.'' The Linux code, developed by Linus Torvalds in the early 1990s when he was a student in Finland, is best known for being a system that rarely crashes. But it was relatively unknown until recently, when big names such as Intel, IBM, Netscape, and Oracle began investing in Red Hat, a leading vendor of Linux software, based in Durham, N.C. In 1998, the Linux server market grew by 212 percent with more than 500,000 copies shipped, according to International Data Corporation, an industry research firm. The basic code, continually updated in consultation with an enthusiastic community of programmers, is still given away for free over the Internet or can be bought at stores for as little as $30. Enhanced versions such as TurboLinux can sell for about $200. No pricing for the DB2-TurboLinux was disclosed. DB2 typically sells for about $8,000 per copy. ''We have customers in every geography asking for Linux solutions,'' said Dick Sullivan, a vice president for IBM Software. ''Collaborations like our agreement with Pacific HiTech will help IBM bring enterprise solutions to our customers faster and with the same high level of support for Linux as we provide for other operating systems.'' Pacific HiTech, based in san Francisco, shipped about 1 million units of TurboLinux last year, but mostly in Asia.>>