Switching from Windows 95 to Windows 98
Opinion
Thebig question of the moment about Windows 98 is “Should I switch to Windows 98?”
Theanswer is “maybe”. The easiest answer is: if you buy a new Wintel computer, getit with Windows 98, but if your existing system is stable and working, don’tmess with it.
Windows98 offers a large number of minor improvements over Windows 95, including theaddition of several more features that were available on the Macintosh in themid and late 1980s. Windows 98 major feature is that it blurs the distinctionbetween the operating system and the web browser, furthering Microsoft’s ownmonopolistic goals of eliminiating Netscape, but by moving some importantoperating system functionality to the web browser, Windows 98 actually runsapproximately 5-20% slower than Windows 95 on the same hardware. Windows98 also includes numerous attempts at fixes of some of the worst problems inWindows 95, but more than 5,000 known bugs from Windows 95 still exist inWindows 98, because Microsoft views bug fixes as unprofitable.
Asone example, Windows 98 now supports multiple monitors. Multiple monitors is agimmick for typical home and business use, but is an essential requirement forprofessional content creation. For page layout, pre-press, illustration,animation, and other graphics work it is common to have all the software toolson one screen and the artwork in progress on a screen by itself. For video andmusic it is common to have one complete monitor for each source and destinationin use (which in a complex project could easily include several sources). Theaddition of this feature is an example of Microsoft closing the gap betweenWindows and Macintosh. The Macintosh had the ability to support multiplemonitors back in 1987. And this feature highlights the Microsoft approach toclosing the gap, because the version available in 1987 on the Macintosh isstill superior to that newly available with Windows 98. On the Macintosh, thereis no limit (other than user hardware purchases) on the number of monitors,each monitor can be of a different size (14", 17", 21",25", etc.), can be of a different resolution (72 ppi, 75 ppi, 150 ppi,etc.), and can be of a different color depth (16, 256, thousands, millions ofcolors). Additionally, the resolution and color depth of any one (or all) ofthe monitors can be changed on the fly without rebooting. And the Macintoshsupports on the fly changing of the ordering of the monitors, changing themonitor that has the menu bar, and changing which monitor windows open into.
Thedownside is that the release of Windows 98 set new records for the mosttechnical support calls in a single day. Windows 98 was released with more than10,000 known bugs and is so bug-filled that it crashed during Microsoft’sofficial televised introduction. Many individuals and businesses have found itso trouble-filled that they have given up on attempts to install it andreturned to Windows 95. These widespread reliability problems have spawnedhumor, such as the error list shown on the Windows 98 page.
BillGates, when questioned about the more than 10,000 bugs Microsoft acknowledgedexisted in Windows 98, claimed “There are no significant bugs in our releasedsoftware that any significant number of users want fixed.…The reason we come upwith new versions is not to fix bugs.…It’s the stupidest reason to buy a newversion I ever heard.”
Microsofttook the approach that it was only profitable for them to fix bugs thataffected a large number of users.
Theresult is that if your computer is a mainstream model with only simple andmainstream hardware and you only use a few select mainstream programs, Windows98 will work with no trouble at all. Windows 98 should also work fine (at leastinitially) when pre-installed on a new computer.
Themore your own work or your choice of hardware or software deviates from themainstream, the more likely that Windows 98 will present all kinds of problemsand that you will probably need to pay for hours or days of expensiveprofessional tech support to get it running.
Ifyour business is still using Windows 3.1 or MS-DOS, then the reasons thatcaused you to avoid Windows 95 apply even more strongly for avoiding Windows98.
Thereare many high quality operating systems available for existing Intel-basedhardware, including excellent commercial operating systems such as OS/2, NeXTSTEP,or Solaris, as well as excellent free operating systems such as LINUX, FreeBSD,NetBSD, and OpenBSD. For those still using MS-DOS, IBM has released an updatedand improved version called PC-DOS-2000.
Forthose considering the purchase of new computers, the Macintosh line includesboth high end graphics machines and a new consumer model, the iMac, which isactually up to two times faster than any Pentium II computer.
