June 1, 1998
Windows 98: Corporate product or consumer product?
By Bob O'Donnell
Now that the official release of Windows 98 is nearly at hand, the Microsoft PR
machinery is starting to kick into high gear, generating a wide range of articles, ads and
other materials touting the benefits of the new OS.
Behind the various approaches the company is taking in this effort is the consistent
theme that Windows 98 is a consumer product, not a corporate one. But if you look at the
actual elements of the upgrade, it seems pretty obvious to me that Windows 98 is a much
more compelling product for the corporate IS manager than it is for the typical consumer.
One of the most important aspects of the upgrade, for example, is the fact that it
rolls up all the previous bug releases, OS updates and patches, and other little goodies
that Microsoft has released since the introduction of Windows 95 into a single, unified
release. That is, until the first Windows 98 Service Pack comes along. (Of course, the
fact that this part of Win98 is considered one of the most compelling reasons for
upgrading is a pretty sad statement on the value and cost of the upgrade. See my previous column
for more.)
Some consumers may find this unified release appealing, but it's absolutely critical
for IS departments who've been juggling as many as five different types of Windows 95
machines (Win95, Win95A, Win95B, Win95B w/USR, and Win95C), as well as lots of upgrades to
individual components. For whatever reason, Microsoft never chose to come up with a single
Windows 95 upgrade that could bring all the various flavors of Windows 95 to the same
level. And as a direct result, many IS departments are clamoring for a way to unify their
PCs at a single OS level, which Windows 98 does offer.
Another important benefit of Win98 is the greatly improved troubleshooting tools built
into the OS. (See my previous column.)
Consumers may on some level enjoy the benefits of having some of these tools in the OS,
but only advanced power users will really even know the tools exist, let alone be able to
use them. Corporate help desk personnel, on the other hand, can and should be able to use
these tools on a daily basis to take care of the types of problems that they encounter all
the time.
Even the multiple monitor support feature of Windows 98 is more likely to see use in a
corporate environment than it is in a consumer environment. About the only genuinely
consumer-focused aspect of the upgrade is the support for television viewing on your PC,
but I doubt that will be taken advantage of by more than about 5 percent or 10 percent of
the upgrading marketplace.
The big-picture thinking behind Microsoft's arguments is that the company wants
corporations to move to NT and consumers to stick with Windows 95 and Windows 98. But
given that NT 5.0 is rumored to be at least a year away and because NT 4.0 still has
limited driver and software support, that isn't a very compelling argument. It also
blatantly ignores the fact that millions of corporate seats now use Windows 95 because
Microsoft was so successful at convincing its corporate customers that Windows 95 was a
viable solution for them over the last three years.
To switch gears on the corporate market now that the company has finally come up with
an improved version of Windows 95 -- which is what Windows 98 really is -- seems more than
a bit disingenuous. In fact, I'd call it a big lie.
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Copyright 1998, by InfoWorld Publishing Corp., a
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