Move over 95, Windows 2000 is here

Last week, Microsoft announced it was finally bidding adieu to its

five-and-a-half-year-old operating system. Microsoft has taken steps to ensure

that Windows 95 will recede to the background and give way for Win 2000 and Win

98. One of Microsoft's most popular products among both consumers and

businesses, the operating system is still in use at many corporations and homes

today. The licenses that let most computer makers incorporate the OS in new

computers expired on December 31. As a result, Dell and other computer makers no

longer install the OS on new computers except under special circumstances.

In addition, Microsoft is not offering Win 95 under new volume licensing

agreements that it sells directly to medium-sized to large businesses, according

to company representatives. The only place that the OS is still being sold is in

the "original equipment manufacturers' distribution channel", the

network of distributors, dealers and small manufacturers. However, sales have

dwindled.

Whatever be the case, Windows 95 has been one of Microsoft's most successful

OS releases. The company released the software with a worldwide marketing frenzy

in the summer of 1995. The "Summer of 95" reverberated with TV ads of

Win 95. Lighted images of Microsoft's logo were projected upon skyscrapers. An

army of golf shirt-clad Microsoft employees were dispersed globally to

distribute copies to computer fans, who lined up at midnight to buy its copies.

And, in a relatively short time, it became a standard operating system for

corporate computers. Windows 95 was a quantum leap in terms of technological

capability and stability. It was a welcome release compared to Win 3.1. Its

varied bugs and innumerable crashes did not deter people from improvising,

cursing and loving it.

For five solid years, Win 95 ruled the computing world, putting people at ease with the computer. Contrast this with DOS and Win 3.1, which managed to give a geeky and techy image to the computer. Win 95 changed all that.

Windows, with its GUI-based architecture, presented a cool and relaxed

feeling to an OS. Here was an OS which offered varied features like word

processing, efficient file management and a hell lot of accessories which could

manage an office and a home like a pro. I have been using the OS for four years

and despite its annoyances (www.annoyances.org),

I have admired it for its strengths. As for its weaknesses, I, like thousand

others, would put up with them, largely for want of a choice.

There were many bugs that made Microsoft people look silly, like the one when

copying, moving, and deleting files. Of course, the animation is cute–a little

piece of paper flying through the air. But, it sometimes takes longer to load

this animation than it takes to carry out the desired operation. And, why is

this useless window displayed when deleting a single file? In addition, a status

bar shows the percentage complete of the current file. For some reason, it never

occurred to the programmers to have the status bar display the percentage

complete of the operation, instead of individual files. For example, it does you

absolutely no good to see the percentage complete of a single file when you have

thirty files to copy. At any rate, there is no way (yet) to turn off the flying

paper animations.

Another bug which caused considerable flutter was when a Windows 95-aware

CD-ROM is inserted into a CD-ROM drive–Windows 95 automatically launches the

program contained on the disk, whether you want it to or not. Similarly, the

audio CD player pops up whenever you insert an audio CD and starts playing it

immediately. This is nice the first or second time, but can get infuriating.

What's worse is that if you double-click on your CD icon in My Computer, the

auto-run fires up, instead of a folder window as you'd expect. This is

especially irritating on slower computers, where you have to wait for what seems

like an eternity for it to load some ridiculous welcome screen. The lack of a

simple provision for turning this "feature" off is absolutely

pathetic, especially after all of the Windows 95 beta testers begged Microsoft

for a provision to disable this feature.

Bugs apart, Windows 95 had a big fan following, as there was nothing so good

that could make the computer such a simple and easy to use device. Its dedicated

followers will feel a sense of nostalgia to finally bid adieu to an OS which

made life simple on the PC. More than anybody else, Microsoft seems to have

learnt a lot from Windows 95. But then, Windows 2000 is yet another story.