Early Win98 release?

DaveGemini

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Feb 23, 1998, 3:00:00 AM2/23/98

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MS vp in charge of Win98, is reported on NEWS.COM this morning,
as saying release "sometime in march/april"
which makes my ordering beta3 preview last week sort of a wasted
exercise in time and $$
??

8-ft-7

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Feb 23, 1998, 3:00:00 AM2/23/98

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If this is at all true, I would say he's talking about the gold release
to manufacturing, which typically is 1-2 months before the initial public
release.

This in fact may be true, since the beta group feels as though aside from
five or six issues they are ready to ship.

8'7"

In article <19980223181...@ladder02.news.aol.com>,
daveg...@aol.com says...

DaveGemini

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Feb 24, 1998, 3:00:00 AM2/24/98

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I received my Win98 consumer preview yesterday, its build1650..
Used my win95 emergency disk to format my c: partition
cleaning out all the win95 stuff and installed it on clean drive
1. It did not object or ask for me to prove I was a windows licensee,
2. It took at least twice as long as win95 to install but didnt
bug me with questions much during the install.
3. converted both c: d: partitions to fat32, no problem.
4. removed the channel garbage and superflous icons
reverting to my simple win95 desktop look...
5. removed IE4 (as much as I could easily get to) and
tried AOL4.0 preview (which already has IE4 included)
works fine.. why have 2 copies of this humonguous pkg?
5 1 day impression? . I LIKE IT!!!

RE: MS honcho not in touch with Win98 release realities...
here is the news.com article, readers can judge if he
knows whats going on...

>>>>>>>>>>>

February 23, 1998, 1:20 p.m. PT
update SAN FRANCISCO--Like a train conductor trying to keep to a tight
schedule, Microsoft (MSFT) insists that it is on track for shipping its Windows
98, but a top executive acknowledged today that questions remain about
scheduling of Windows NT's latest version.

Robert Herbold, Microsoft's chief operating officer, said at the BancAmerica
Robertson Stephens Technology '98 conference here that the launch of the
Windows 98 operating system is still on schedule. Microsoft previously had said
that it planned to release the OS between April and June, despite speculation
that the launch could be held up due to the company's ongoing antitrust battle
with the Justice Department over requiring computer vendors to bundle its
Internet Explorer browser with its operating system.

Although the launch of Windows 98 is on track, it is important to keep in mind
that the product initially was supposed to be Windows 97--before it fell behind
schedule. Herbold noted that while another much-anticipated launch from the
software giant, Windows NT 5.0, is still on track with its beta testing, its
shipping date remains in question.

He reiterated the company's standard line on the corporate operating system,
saying that its shipping date will depend on the results of the product's beta
test. The same holds true, he added, for the company's pending SQL Server 7.

Herbold also addressed the status of Microsoft's four core business areas.

Microsoft is expecting strong growth in sales of its desktop systems and
applications, he said. The software giant has shipped over 20 million copies of
its Office 97 product and now is working on new versions of the software suite.

As for sales of Back Office Server, Herbold said: "We are the new kid on the
block, so growth prospects are high, but market share is not."

Sales of Windows NT were up 45 percent from year-ago figures during the last
quarter. Sales of Microsoft Exchange are up 160 percent, while sales of the
company's SQL server are up 90 percent.

Microsoft's Web interactive media has seen positive growth as well, but in
other respects, the company has racked up some "battle scars," Herbold
acknowledged.

"People have asked do we have a financial model that will work," he said. "The
answer is no. It's too early to tell."

Herbold said Microsoft's consumer platform, WebTV, has more than 250,000
subscribers and noted that Windows CE software has shipped more than 500,000
units so far this year.

Microsoft's ad spending for fiscal 1996, he said, was 5 percent, or $4 million,
of total ad spending on the Net. Last year, that figure rose to 7 percent, or
$24.2 million of total ad spending.

Herbold said another growth area that Microsoft would be paying attention to
going forward is news delivered via the Net.

"Big events cause Net use to skyrocket, and it doesn't go back to normal
afterwards," Herbold said. "[Net users] get converted and continue to use the
service."

Herbold cited viewership statistics from the Web site of MSNBC, Microsoft's
joint venture with NBC, showing that Net usage jumped 140 percent in January
after Michael Kennedy was killed while skiing. Viewership fell during the two
days that followed, but still was up 30 percent from levels tallied before the
fatal accident.

Herbold ticked off a list of other major news events that followed a similar
ebb and flow, pointing out that MSNBC's viewership base was up 330 percent
after the Texas execution of Karla Faye Tucker.

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Motty

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Feb 25, 1998, 3:00:00 AM2/25/98

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I'm glad to see someone was able to install the Consumer Preview...I'm
sure that you don't have a TX chip set, since it seems to have no idea
what that is...
it's mo...@futuresights.com....love those spammers!

Eric Gisin

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Feb 26, 1998, 3:00:00 AM2/26/98

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Micro wrote in message <34f5a454...@news.mindspring.com>...
>On Wed, 25 Feb 1998 00:13:48 GMT, kra...@my.email.address (krakan)
>wrote:
>>Seems to me if the release it in Europe or wherever the the DoJ has
>>nothing to say, the whole problem will solve itself as once
>>released...
>Nope, MS is a US corporation and bound by DoJ rulings. Besides, even
>if they found a way to sidestep that issue, consider what the
>repercussions would be in the case.
> Micro

If the DoJ doesn't allow bundling of IE with Windows, Bill can just buy
a small country and relocate Microsoft.

Jim Dompier

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Feb 26, 1998, 3:00:00 AM2/26/98

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Eric Gisin, fingered the keyboard with...

> If the DoJ doesn't allow bundling of IE with Windows, Bill can just buy
> a small country and relocate Microsoft.
>
>

Bill could buy a small Continent!, and the surrounding Oceans too! <G>

--
Jim Dompier

**remove the seven and the obvious to reply**

Chris Flynn

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Mar 9, 1998, 3:00:00 AM3/9/98

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On Thu, 26 Feb 1998 19:03:05 -0500, "Eric Gisin"
<NOT_Re...@skynet.ca> wrote:

>If the DoJ doesn't allow bundling of IE with Windows, Bill can just buy
>a small country and relocate Microsoft.

Bill's just bought a house in London......