Win98: It's the last of a line
For nearly two years, Microsoft officials have warned customers that Win98 is the last of the Windows family, and that its next consumer desktop be a version of Windows NT, the industrial-strength Microsoft OS for big business.
Currently, Microsoft maintains three major versions of Windows: Windows CE mainly for small or handheld devices, Windows 9X for laptops and desktops and Windows NT for its high-powered workstations and servers.
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| PC Week's John Dodge talks to Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Bob Herbold about Win98 and the upcoming release of Windows NT 5.0.
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Moving toward merging
For years, Microsoft's goal has been to reduce the number of operating system options for consumers -- to save on marketing, development and support costs.
Since Windows 3.X days, Microsoft's top brass has tried to encourage Microsoft's software and development teams to share more code among themselves. Individual team loyalties have retarded this process.
| If Microsoft sticks to its timetable, a consumer version of NT won't appear before the year made famous by a 'Space Odyssey.' |
With Windows 98, however, Microsoft has made headway in getting its Windows and NT development teams to cooperate. Windows 98 and NT 5.0 will share the same Internet Explorer interface, for instance, along with much of the code that allows users to "plug and play" peripherals, such as CD-ROM drives.
Consumer NT due when?
But that's about all. Beyond that, "there's not much the two [Windows 98 and NT] really have in common," said a systems integrator working for a Fortune 500 company, who requested anonymity.
It's hard to predict when to expect "NT 6.0 Consumer Edition," which Microsoft wants to debut in lockstep with NT 6.0 Enterprise Edition. But there's still another interim NT upgrade planned -- NT 5.0 -- due in 1999.
So if Microsoft sticks to its current timetable, NT 6.0 won't appear before the year made famous by a space odyssey -- 2001.