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(The Transition from DOS to Windows 2000)
Many software application packages, in areas such as records management, have recently made the transition from DOS to Windows. But . . . , not to Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows 2000, but to Windows 3.1. Windows 95 and Windows 98 are very different than Windows 3.1, from a programming perspective. Windows 2000 differs even more from Windows 3.1, and is also very different than Windows 95 and Windows 98. What are all these products? This paper is about the relationship between DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and the other products in the Microsoft family.
This paper is intended to be representative of product concentrations within Microsoft product lines, but is not intended to be an all encompassing, comprehensive review of all Microsoft products.
DOS (Disk Operating System), as we know it, was born with the IBM PC in 1981. 'D' was for 'Disk' because the software was on disk rather than on tape or punch cards. 'O' was for 'Operating' because DOS ran the computer so that an application, such as a word processor, could run on the computer and create your documents when you typed. 'S' was for 'System'. Everything in the computer was run by DOS, and DOS ran the computer as a system.
In the mid 1980's a layer was added on top of DOS. This layer was called Windows, a GUI (Graphical User Interface). GUI's were born at Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center), popularized by Apple, and made a wild commercial success by Microsoft. In the early 1990’s Windows 3.0, the first successful Microsoft Windows product, gave DOS the point and click mouse look, but Windows did not improve the underlying DOS.
New versions of DOS and Windows were released, each with a new number. An example of a release number is '3.1.1'. A change in the first new digit represents a product life altering change, essentially a new product. A change in the second digit (called a point release, as in 3 point 1, 3.1) represents a significant upgrade. A change in the third digit represents a minor change, usually a bug fix.
Microsoft is hard at work changing release number into model year numbers, where a product is 'new' each year, changes are predictable, and changes are driven and timed by marketing, not technology. 'Windows 98' is an example of a model year number, just like the model year numbers used in the automotive industry.
DOS needed to be removed rather than tinkered with. In 1993, Windows NT (WNT) (now Windows 2000) was introduced after five years of development. Windows NT has nothing to do with DOS or Windows (or with Windows 98). However, the Windows NT GUI was made to look like Windows to make Windows NT easier to sell. Windows NT is also incompatible with just about all DOS specialized hardware and a wide variety of DOS software.
Windows NT was, and is (now as Windows 2000), designed to replace Mainframes, Unix servers, and Unix workstations. Windows 2000 has not grown into these shoes yet, but it will someday. Windows NT, soon to be Windows 2000, is the current choice for all but the largest servers, used in areas such as document management, document imaging, and records management system. You will see, or hear about, Windows NT (Windows 2000) servers in most of the booths in the ARMA (Association of Records Managers and Administrators) and AIIM (Association of Information and Image Management) shows.
Windows NT (now Windows 2000) was a radical departure from both DOS and Windows 3.1. Most DOS and Windows users could not easily adopt Windows NT, (alas), so a transition plan was created. The transition plan was Windows 95 (W95) followed by Windows 98 (W98). Two weeks before Windows 95 was introduced, Bill Gates said that transition plan would last only two releases before it was replaced by Windows NT. He said that Windows 98 would have no successor and would be the end of the product line.
Windows 95 and Windows 98 removed DOS completely, but maintained compatibility with DOS hardware and software. Unfortunately, this compatibility with DOS also preserved many DOS problems and made it impossible for W95 and W98 to support many of the very desirable features of Windows NT, now renamed Windows 2000. This is why W95 and W98 will be replaced by Windows 2000 in 1999 or 2000.
Another reason for removing DOS completely from Windows 95 and 98 was that in 1981, at the time of the introduction of the IBM PC, IBM retained the rights to market DOS independent of Microsoft. Microsoft had also been restricted by the federal government in marketing DOS in a monopolistic manner. With the creation of W95 and W98, DOS no longer existed in the Microsoft product line, or in the part of the computer world influenced by Microsoft, which is most of it. The quarter billion US dollar hoopla around the introduction of Windows 95 was not to get people to buy Windows 95, but to kill DOS. The elimination of DOS is one of Microsoft's growing list of 'victories-by-definition'. (Microsoft defined DOS out of existence two weeks after the US federal government restricted Microsoft’s DOS marketing practices.)
By renaming Windows NT 5.0 as Windows 2000, Microsoft: (1) restarts the release numbering with '00' (Truly the bedrock of a fresh start.), (2) provides a clean slate for the new millennium, (3) transitions WNT to annual model year changes, (4) drops the 'NT' from 'Windows NT' because there will be nothing left of 'Non-NT Windows' to distinguish 'NT' from, (5) unifies the conceptual Windows product line, (6) blurs the distinctions between the many completely different products that have constituted the Windows product line, (7) erases all memories of two decades of incompatibilities (8) convinces all the Windows 98 customers that Windows 2000 is merely the next step (even though in many ways Windows 2000 is ten times bigger and more complex than Windows 98), (9) links Windows 2000 to the turning of the millennium, ensuring that any problems will be lost in the cacophony of the millennial celebration and the noise of Y2K millennium bug disasters, and (10), perhaps most important, gives the Windows product line an elusive name, making it impossible to take the product to task. For, who could focus on a product with position zero: ‘00’ in the scheme of things?
Microsoft has become famous for delayed software. One of the reasons that Windows 2000 did not come after NT 5.0 and instead became NT 5.0 in a name change, was that NT 5.0 was delayed so long that the desire to use model year names became stronger than the desire to keep the same name on a product (NT 5.0) throughout the product’s development and release.
A second naming problem caused by the long gestation period of NT 5.0 was the need to keep NT 4.0 in the marketplace for longer than its design life. This was compounded by the marketing requirement that NT 4.0 not have intermediate point releases. This was necessary to show that NT 4.0 had been a complete product when released. Taken together, these two requirements begat the several NT 4.0 service packs that were effectively the NT 4.n point releases. Because the earlier service packs were not officially releases, they were not tested as thoroughly as point releases usually are tested. To avoid the resulting problems, service packs are now tested as thoroughly as point releases.
A third naming problem has arisen. As Windows 2000 slips further, Windows 98 must be refreshed with upgrades such as Internet Explorer 5.0. Because Windows 98 has been described as the end of the line, the name cannot be changed. To solve this problem, Windows 98, Second Edition is being readied for Fall 1999 delivery.
Microsoft has many server-based features in Windows 2000 that cannot be put in Windows NT 4.0 with service packs (patches), so Windows 2000 cannot be allowed to slip much further. To get Windows 2000 out sooner, some of the consumer features in Windows 2000 will not be completely implemented. For this reason Windows 2000 may not have an easily marketed home version. This has lead to speculation that there may be a Windows 98, Third Edition, and perhaps more Windows 98 editions, after the release of Windows 98, Second Edition.
The workstation, small office, and enterprise versions of Windows 2000 are being defined now and will be fully differentiated with the release Windows 2000. The Windows 2000 beta 2 (pre-release test) is now out, with beta 3 soon on the way, and the capabilities of Windows 2001 (nee WNT 6.0) are being publicized for release in about the year 2001. Windows 2000 on home PCs (already slipping, not yet named, but perhaps Windows 2000 Home) and lower-powered office PCs (not yet named, but perhaps Windows 2000 Professional Lite) used by a single individual will be derived from a version of the easy-to-maintain ZAW (Zero Administration Windows) WNT workstation.
Windows 2000 Professional workstations are networkable and will replace WNT 4.0 Workstation. A Windows 2000 Small Office Server (not yet named) may be able to support a small workgroup network with up to 25 workstations. Windows 2000 DataCenter Server, with support for up to 16 processors in a multiprocessor configuration, is planned to be able to handle the largest networks. Windows 2000 Advanced Server, with up to 4 processors, will support department level networks. Windows 2000 Server, with up to 2 processors, will handle configuration sizes between departments and small workgroups. As with the segmenting of the Windows 2000 product line and market, all Microsoft products are increasingly being defined to match the marketplace rather than being defined by underlying technology.
Windows CE is an operating system for handheld devices including cell phones, palm-top computers, and even smart cards, credit card sized computers. Microsoft’s plan is for everyone with a telephone to turn to Microsoft for telephone software. Microsoft has announced (March 1999) it is working with Acer Inc., Daewoo Telecom Ltd., Panasonic, Philips and Vestel to develop Windows CE based, web-enabled telephones, which combine traditional telephone services such as voice messaging and caller ID with enhanced data capabilities such as Internet access and e-mail.
While the exact relationship between Windows CE and Windows 2000 has not been determined, Windows CE and Windows 2000 are said to be in the same family: Windows. As memory get cheaper and processors get faster, CE may grow into a full- fledged version of Windows 2000.
- - - Editors’ note: end of part 1 - - -
Microsoft Office is the marriage of Word (word processor), Excel (spreadsheet), PowerPoint (slides), and other desktop applications, creating a suite of products. Office 97 added Outlook 97, a contact management program (enhanced telephone book). Office 2000, available June 10, 1999, improves many of the features and components that were new in Office 97 (supporting the axiom that everything is better in the second release).
A component of Office 2000 Premium, the first release of PhotoDraw 2000, will provide competition for CorelDRAW and Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop, and is likely to be continuously improved by Microsoft in the future. Microsoft will also increase the penetration rate of Publisher 2000 by including it in Office 2000 Premium.
Microsoft is also working to tie Office more closely to Microsoft’s independent software developers. The Office 2000 Developer edition includes Office 2000 Premium, the high-end edition of Office 2000, as well as professional productivity tools, documentation, and sample code for quickly building solutions with Microsoft Office. These tools and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) enable developers to build business solutions that utilize Office as a powerful platform for application development.
Many Microsoft Office development tools are useful within Office, even if Office is running on a Mac platform. Office thereby brings the Microsoft environment into the Mac world. With some development effort, on the part of their computer support group, Mac users can participate in a Microsoft workspace experience while using underlying Mac hardware and software.
Microsoft has even opened the Microsoft workspace experience to developers of other software products by creating a Microsoft Office compatibility certification. When certified, third party developers, such as Apple, can advertise their products as a part of the Microsoft workspace experience.
The comprehensive Microsoft Office 2000 offering, if Microsoft is successful in fulfilling Office 2000’s many promises, will be the start a trend of annual model year changes for the Office Suite.
Following the Office suite concept, several support programs have been combined into the BackOffice suite (not yet rebadged as BackOffice 2000). The flagship support program is Windows 2000. Second is the SQL (Structured Query Language) Server database. SQL Server has just been completely rewritten as SQL Server 7.0 (perhaps soon to be SQL Server 2000) and is now offered as a back-end for the Microsoft Access database and as a replacement for the Microsoft Access database. The IIS (Internet Information Server) manages a Web interface and hosts an organization's Internet site. Exchange is a mail server that complements Outlook in the Office suite. It is likely that over the next few years Exchange will expand beyond e-mail documents and take over all document management functions in enterprises, including records management.
Because Exchange is included at no additional cost in BackOffice; every organization with BackOffice will view document management as a free service that came along with their server. The no-additional-cost view has already been created with Windows 2000 networking, which is included free with Windows 2000. This is currently affecting networking vendors, such as Novell, that market their products as an additional cost add-on to Windows. Not only is Microsoft networking free with Windows 2000, Microsoft networking is invisible because it does not have a high profile name. In fact, Microsoft networking does not have a name. In a brilliant marketing move, Microsoft has left Microsoft networking nameless (and invisible). It appears that Novell may have already lost the 'war-by-definition' that Netscape is just now starting to fight with the aid of the federal government.
The Microsoft ‘SQL Server’ name was also chosen with great (marketing) care. SQL is the standard for the language of database queries. All database vendors, such as Oracle, describe their database servers as ‘SQL (language based) servers’ (with a lower case ‘s’ on the word server. Potential customers, who do not have time to learn the intricacies of database interfaces and design, hear the database vendor say ‘SQL Server’, with a capital ‘S’ on server, which is a Microsoft product.
In BackOffice, SMS (System Management Service) tracks an organization’s hardware and software inventory and configuration. SMS was rushed into service by an eager Microsoft because SMS also manages software licenses and reminds Microsoft customers that they should purchase more software licenses when new users are added. SMS also facilitates software audits both internally and by parties alleging software piracy.
Outlook is a member of the Office suite, but it substitutes for a member of the BackOffice suite, Exchange Server, if a user’s computer is not networked to an Exchange Server.
Outlook manages all of an individual’s documents and connections, just as Exchange can manage all of the documents and connections of an organization.
Connections include email addresses, phone number, addresses, and organization charts. Outlook managed documents types start with email and include all types of documents that can be attached to email, which by definition is all document types because any type of document can be stored in a Microsoft file, and any Microsoft file can be attached to an email.
In the future Outlook can provide SMS like services in the home; tracking purchased DVD movies, music, books, games, and other software. Outlook will be able to create music play lists for personalized radio stations as efficiently as Outlook now schedules an individual’s time in their day planner and calendar. Outlook will manage car maintenance and home content inventories done for insurance purposes. The home content inventory will be fed directly by Microsoft Money as product purchases are downloaded over the Internet as part of debit and credit card bills.
Outlook will also be able to paste the transaction numbers, from the list of credit card purchases on emailed credit card bills, into a personal or corporate tax form, if the tax collectors ever decide to require a traceable transaction code to substantiate every deduction listed on a tax return. This feature would decrease the size of the cash economy, with which Microsoft competes as an alternate use of available funds. Microsoft also competes with the cash economy because the cash economy is a vendor of Microsoft’s own (pirated) products.
Outlook is great with details; a simple extension could link individual phone calls, initiated by Outlook using the PCs modem port, to the phone call line-items listed on a phone bill delivered via an electronic commerce billing service. All of this information could be instantly and permanently available from the PC, over a LAN (Local Area Network), or over the Internet.
The BackOffice Suite market is being segmented for different size businesses in the same way that the Microsoft Office Suite market is segmented, by product, into Works, a low cost, introductory version of the Office, Office Standard, and Office Professional. Currently available are BackOffice for Small Business and the Standard BackOffice. An enterprise version of BackOffice will soon follow.
Microsoft's great success with suites (Microsoft Office adopted the suite market and then took it over.) has created suites for everything. The Microsoft Encarta Reference Suite 98, includes the unabridged Encarta 98 Encyclopedia, Encarta Virtual Globe 98, and the Bookshelf 98 CD-ROM that includes: the American Heritage Dictionary, the Microsoft Internet Directory 98, the Encarta 98 Desk World Atlas, Roget's Thesaurus, the World Almanac and Book of Facts 1997, the Encarta 98 Desk Encyclopedia, the Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, the People's Chronology, the National Five-Digit ZIP and Post Office Directory, and the Microsoft Computer and Internet Dictionary. The Microsoft Home Essentials 98 Suite contains Word 97, the Encarta 98 Encyclopedia, Money 98, Works 4.5, Greetings Workshop, the Entertainment Pack Puzzle Collection, and Microsoft Internet Explorer. The Microsoft Money Financial Suite 98 includes Money 98, access to stock brokers, and web-based financial advice.
Most people only want one or two of the products that make up a suite, so suites are priced at about the same price as two of the suites’ many component products. If there is even a slight chance that there might be a need a second Microsoft product in the suite, most Microsoft customers decide to buy the entire suite rather than buying the individual product for which the customer made the initial purchase decision. Then, when the Microsoft customer find a need for one of the other suite components, they discover they already have the Microsoft product for that need. They also discover that they acquired the product for free, as part of the Microsoft suite.
This is great marketing. It puts Microsoft first in line for each new product category as users expand their repertoire of software tools. It is also a good antitrust strategy. If the government requires Microsoft to releases each of its products separately (as the Department of Justice is trying to do by forcing Microsoft to separate Internet Explorer from Windows 98), Microsoft can then combine the separate products into suites.
Ultimately, there can be suites of suites, providing an all- encompassing Microsoft environment, available on one DVD. (A DVD looks just like a CD, but can hold over 25 times as much software. Officially DVD does not stand for Digital Video Disc, but that is what it is.) And, the DVD is supported by Windows 98 and Windows 2000. The DVD, Windows 98, and Windows 2000 seem like technology tours de force, but they will probably be most important as very effective tools for blurring the distinction between applications and the operating system, by providing suites of both on the same physical piece of media.
When new versions of Microsoft software come out, one often sees articles by technical experts saying that there are too few new features to justify an upgrade. Conversely, business experts often say that new microprocessor designs have no advantage because their new features are not used in the software used in business.
Technical experts are tasked with adapting existing software to a specific user environment. Having succeeded with this, the experts often do not see much difference between the systems they have configured and debugged, using the current release of Microsoft software, and newly available software release.
Users, on the other hand, remember the struggle they had with their existing software, the effort it took to work with the technical experts to get most important features to function in the user’s workspace, and the features that it was easier to live with than to change.
A new release fixes everything in one fell (and inexpensive) swoop. That is the power behind the annual software christenings, the synchronization of the hardware and software industries on a model year basis, and increased, predictable, sales volume for Microsoft.
Microsoft’s long gestation period for software has made if difficult for users to determine the best time to purchase software. Users could not wait two or three years to make a purchase. Once a purchase decision is made, the purchase must be made within a few months, within a year if exact release timing can be assured.
Previously, with long release cycles, users had to guess which intermediate patch (e.g. service pack) to go with. Often it was difficult to even find some versions of patches. Each patch carried with it the possibility of issues (problems) and it was often not possible to uninstall the patches.
Windows 2000 and Office 2000 both fix many internal issues in Microsoft software. Having swept aside major structural problems, it should be easier for Microsoft to make regular (annual) incremental changes in the future.
Microprocessor hardware vendors have recently tried to increase the frequency of new microprocessor introductions to the rate of one every few months. As Microsoft increases the percentage of its product line that is released annually, microprocessor vendor introductions will become synchronized with the annual software introductions.
Microsoft is in hot competition with standalone game manufacturers. By incorporating game-like graphics in commercial office products such as data imaging and modeling for data warehouses, Microsoft can build the sales volume of commodity microprocessors produced with these game-like instructions. This volume decreases the graphics-capable microprocessor prices and allows Microsoft to compete on a software basis with the dedicated hardware in the standalone games. This competition ensures that Microsoft will incorporate new microprocessor features in its software as quickly as possible. Each annual software release will include the latest software advances.
Given these factors, users will continue to set a budget and then buy whatever they can afford, making purchase about once every three year. Even though computers are kept about three years, users must have a purchase opportunity at least once per year so that the users can start or change their purchase cycle in a year of their choosing.
High-end home users and corporate users will continue to spend about US$ 2.5 thousand for their hardware and software package. Most users will spend the newly viable US$ 1 thousand. The remaining, first time users, who purchase their computers to get on the Internet, will spend the soon to be viable US$ 250.
The US$ 250 software and hardware price is projected based on Microsoft’s continuing efforts to reduce the percentage of computing expenditures received by hardware vendors. Microsoft competes with hardware vendors on an alternate use of funds basis. Microsoft embraces all new microprocessor and system designs so that the hardware field will be open to intensive competition, driving down prices.
With each release of new software, Microsoft attempts to bring more order to the chaos of PC standards. As Microsoft requires closer adherence to standard interfaces for applications, more applications interfaces break (are rendered incompatible with the new release of Microsoft software). Independent software vendors are currently working to resolve these incompatibilities and ease the introduction of Microsoft Office 2000 and Microsoft Windows 2000.
Software products can be aggregated into suites, decreasing granularity, and, as the federal government may allege, decreasing competition.
Soon Microsoft will increase the granularity of its products by decomposing them into programmable objects, hundreds of thousands of programmable objects, one for each product feature, for all of the features of all of the Microsoft products. This was originally done to make each of the product features available to programmers and to make all Microsoft products scriptable. Scriptability means that any operation that can be carried out with mouse clicks and keyboard entries can be executed by a program.
Increasing granularity may also be Microsoft’s response to the governments’ anti-trust lawsuits. Instead of separating Windows 98 and Internet Explorer and creating two separate products, Microsoft will have the option of presenting the government with hundreds of thousands of products. Beyond this, millions of Microsoft developers will create millions of customized combined operating system and application packages using the programmable objects. These packages will then compete with each other. Underlying the whole competitive structure will be Microsoft products.
- - - Editors’ note: end of part 2 - - -
Microsoft first viewed the Internet as unimportant.
Then Microsoft viewed the Internet as important. For Microsoft, important is synonymous with being within Microsoft’s sphere of influence.
The Windows 98 and Windows 2000 GUIs look like the Internet. Many Windows 98 users are not completely clear where Windows 98 stops and the Internet begins. Rather than trying to take control of the Internet, Microsoft has made it appear that Microsoft is the Internet.
Microsoft’s Internet version of Encarta is billed as a child- safe window on the Internet, a virtual library, crafted by Microsoft. With this version of Encarta, Microsoft becomes the Internet, a child-safe virtual library containing all the information on the worldwide web (www). And Microsoft’s Encarta is designed to be the first window on the world that children encounter after they leave the Microsoft published Magic School Bus mythical exploration product.
After Encarta, Microsoft presents the Microsoft Interactive Media products including: the Microsoft Network; interactive service businesses including the Expedia.com, the Mungo Park online travel magazine, CarPoint, and the Sidewalk city guides and national yellow pages; news and commentary products including MSNBC on the Internet and the Slate interactive magazine; multimedia games such as the Internet Gaming Zone; consumer CD-ROM titles in the kids, reference, and mapping categories; and desktop finance products and services including Microsoft Investor.
Microsoft is busy polishing its portals. A portal is a home page on the Internet that Internet users go to first when looking for information, services, or products to purchase. Microsoft has modified the Microsoft Network (MSN) to be a portal on the Internet, and the first products presented in the MSN portal are Microsoft products.
The Microsoft Web Events portal offers over 700 radio and television stations to Internet listeners and viewers. With Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0, an Internet listener or viewer can turn on any one of the stations with a single mouse click. The user can then listen to or view the station on their PC while working or playing a game. To be sure that Internet Explorer is available with no effort, Microsoft has worked to have more than 200,000 PC makers ship Internet Explorer with the PCs they make.
Through another portal, Hotmail, Microsoft delivers the mail for over 30 million Internet users and is adding over 150 thousand new Hotmail customers per day (October 1998).
For commercial content, Microsoft now has CarPoint for car sales and ongoing management of car maintenance for individuals, the Microsoft Network to provide Internet connections and web content, MSNBC to provide news content, Microsoft HomeAdvisor which provides a national multiple listing service for real estate and which recently started providing assistance in arranging loans, and Expedia, Microsoft’s travel services which is doing three million dollars per week (December 1998) in travel sales with the Microsoft Expedia.com travel service.
Recently (March 1999) Microsoft announced it has signed a memorandum of understanding to enter a joint venture with Softbank (Softbank is the Microsoft software distribution in Japan. Softbank is also the owner of the Comdex tradeshows, worldwide.) and Yahoo! Japan to create the Japanese version of the MSN CarPoint.
To enhance its yellow pages product, Sidewalks, Microsoft Corp. acquired (March 1999) CompareNet Inc., one of the leading comparison-shopping services on the Internet with more than 1.5 million unique users per month. CompareNet will be incorporated into the MSN Sidewalk online guide.
When the MSN shopping portal is complete, a customer interested in purchasing a new television will be able to research the latest features and innovations as well as access product reviews and shopping tips to gain insight into the products available. The online customer can find and compare models that meet their personal preferences for brand, quality, price or other attributes, and view special offers and promotions from online and local retailers. In addition, the customer will have the ability to buy from an online merchant or search by ZIP code for a retail store nearby that meets customer defined specific criteria.
Microsoft also offers products to help its customers find their destination in the physical world. These map products are tied in with the Microsoft travel service, Expedia.
Microsoft Expedia Streets & Trips 2000 allows users to quickly and easily calculate door-to-door driving directions throughout the United States, find and map street addresses, places or points of interest with pinpoint accuracy, and search a comprehensive guide of travel planning information for North America. With more than 6 million miles of local, city and state roads and highways throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico, customers can use Expedia Streets & Trips 2000 for planning a trip of any distance. Streets & Trips 2000 combine detailed U.S. street maps, North American highway maps, and high-quality turn-by-turn data, with extensive information on places and travel services. By combining what has generally been offered in two separate products, Microsoft provides consumers with one comprehensive and completely integrated mapping solution.
In Streets & Trips 2000, Microsoft has included: 1.) More than 6 million miles of local, city, state and highway road maps for North America from leading map data providers Geographic Data Technology Inc. (GDT) and Navigation Technologies Corp. (NavTech); 2.) Door-to-door driving directions to virtually any address in the United States; 3.) Information on turn restrictions, detours and road construction, with updates available online; 4.) Powerful Snap-Routing features for customizing routes and roads with a simple mouse-click and drag; 5.) Pocket Streets feature for the Windows® CE operating system so users can transfer their plans to a pocket PC; and 6.) Thousands of articles and listings from the world's leading authorities on travel, including the following: A.) More than 14,000 ZagatSurvey restaurant listings; B.) More than 300,000 business listings from infoUSA, including locations for ATM bank machines and car service centers; C.) More than 9,500 campground listings from Woodall's; D.) More than 7,000 listings from Interstate America of exits and rest areas; and E.) More than 2,500 beautiful photographs and travel images.
Streets & Trips 2000 also includes more than 10,000 Web links that provide in-depth information on points of interest and 24-hour access to local highlights, traffic, current road construction, detours, weather updates and other relevant travel information. An easy-to-use download feature updates construction information quickly and easily so users can avoid delays by rerouting around trouble spots.
Microsoft has signed (March 1999) co-marketing and advertising deals with Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide (including the Desert Inn in Las Vegas, Nevada, formerly owned by, and the home of, Howard Hughes), Hyatt Hotels and Resorts, and Travelscape.com to position MSN Expedia as a one-stop travel marketplace where consumers can access an increased selection of hotels' options and services. The deals also constitute both Starwood's and Hyatt's largest online advertising purchases and illustrate how MSN Expedia is working with the hotel industry to reshape the way in which travel suppliers connect with consumers on the Web.
MSN Gaming Zone now counts (March 1999) more than 4 million registered users with more than 30,000 gamers logging onto the site at peak times. Microsoft states that these numbers establish the MSN Gaming Zone as the No. 1 gaming community on the Internet today with a nearly 600 percent surge in monthly ad revenue in the preceding 6 months. The MSN Gaming Zone can be found on the Internet at http://msn.com, under games.
The Zone began in 1996 with 15,000 members and six card and board games. Today the Zone hosts more than 200,000 unique visitors per day and offers more than 90 multiplayer games for players of all interests and skill levels. Players can choose from free classic card and board games like Hearts and Chess, free matchmaking for popular retail games like ‘Age of Empires’ and ‘Rainbow Six’, as well as four exclusive premium games: the ‘Fighter Ace’ and ‘UltraCorps’ online multiplayer games, and ‘Tanarus’ and ‘CyberStrike2’.
Microsoft claims that the two hundred thousand Zone daily visitors are more than the total number of visitors per day at all of the Disney theme parks combined. The games generates 22 million minutes of usage per day on the Microsoft game Zone.
According to Microsoft, the recent growth is due in part to the Zone's thriving community, which now hosts more than 500 user-run tournaments per week and several free Microsoft- sponsored tournaments with prizes. In addition, players can start clans (there are currently more than 4,000 clans on the Zone), strategize and collaborate with peers, lay down a challenge, share tips and tricks, or even attend a guest chat with a celebrity game developer.
Microsoft’s foray into content has added textual and image based intellectual work products to Microsoft’s traditional area of intellectual property protection: software.
Microsoft made (March 1999) an equity investment in Reciprocal, Inc. (formerly known as Rights Exchange Inc.). In addition, the two companies entered into a strategic technology and marketing alliance to accelerate the development and optimization of Reciprocal's Digital Rights Management (DRM) solution and services for the Microsoft Windows operating system. DRM encompasses a broad set of technologies and services that provide new ways of accessing, using and purchasing all kinds of digital content. Integration of Reciprocal's solution with the Microsoft Windows operating systems will help build the emerging digital content distribution and commerce industry.
Most recently added, Microsoft Office 2000 will store all of its documents in XML format, an enhanced version of the HTML format used on the Internet. With this change, all Office 2000 documents can be stored to an Internet server and made accessible to everyone on the Internet with no additional effort. Any Microsoft Office customer can now publish to the Internet merely by saving their Office documents exactly as the customers have already learned to save the Office documents, with no additional study or training.
Microsoft will also add extensions to XML to facilitate storing Office 2000 documents in the XML format. The documents that are published on the Internet using these Microsoft XML extensions will be most easily viewed using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser. Tied in with other Microsoft products, this will increase Internet Explorer’s domination. In marketing terms: as Internet Explorer becomes synonymous with browser, it will cease to be necessary to say ‘Internet Explorer browser’, ‘Internet Explorer’ will be all that is necessary. Unfettered by other vendors’ browser release numbering, Internet Explorer can become Internet Explorer 2000.
Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5 is the first commercially available browser software to support the Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 recommendation developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). As a co-founder of the W3C XML working group (an industry standards group) and a leading provider of XML technologies in the industry, Microsoft views XML as the language of choice for building data-driven application.
(Since 1991 Microsoft Research has hired hundreds of leading Computer Science scholars, http://research.Microsoft.com/people, to do the fundamental research which underlies Microsoft contributions to the many industry standards groups, conference program committees, editorial boards, and advisory panels that Microsoft and its researchers belong to. Microsoft Research operates research facilities in Redmond Washington, San Francisco California, Beijing China, and Cambridge England.)
Internet Explorer 5 is currently (April 1999) the only shipping browser, Microsoft claims, with complete support for XML 1.0. Further, Internet Explorer is the first, and currently the only, Microsoft claims, shipping browser to support a wide variety of other XML technologies, including a subset of the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) W3C working draft, the XML Document Object Model (DOM), the XML Namespaces 1.0 Recommendation and a technology preview for advanced XML schemas (document descriptions).
Internet Explorer 5.0 is off to a rousing start. More than 1 million downloads of Internet Explorer 5 took place, from Microsoft’s web site, in the opening week of availability, starting March 18, 1999. According to Microsoft, customer downloads of Internet Explorer 5 during the ‘opening weekend’ more than tripled those of the previous record-setting Internet Explorer 4.0 and were greater than the total number of people who attended the opening weekends of Best Picture nominees "Shakespeare in Love," "Elizabeth," "The Thin Red Line" and "Life is Beautiful" combined.
Microsoft also noted that more than 140 ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and PC manufacturers also made Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 available for download to their customers from their websites on the first weekend. Microsoft did not have figures for the number of downloads from these additional sites.
Microsoft NetMeeting is a Suite of products that expands into the area of teleconferences, multipoint dataconferencing, surveillance camera recording, traffic monitoring, traffic violation ticketing at monitored locations, videotelephony, and Internet telephony for all Microsoft customers worldwide. Microsoft NetMeeting is a core component of Microsoft Internet Explorer.
As Microsoft continues to create more product suites and begins to merge the product suites with the Internet, the process may even be a preparation for the possibility that Microsoft, itself, may not be able to sell suites of its products directly. Third parties can be enlisted as suite creators. Infoseek has created an intelligent channel suite, on the Internet, with Microsoft's web content products. Products in the Infoseek Internet suite include: Microsoft Investor, tools and content from the Microsoft Money Insider interactive financial guide; Microsoft Expedia.com, Microsoft's travel service; Microsoft CarPoint, Microsoft's online automotive sales service; and MSNBC.
Microsoft is working on a myriad of fronts to make Internet hardware and communications links much faster and much lower cost, worldwide. For example, Microsoft is working with Hong Kong Telecom (March 1999) to develop a range of compelling multimedia applications to be delivered via Hong Kong Telecom's broadband network, the world's largest ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) network that already reaches 70 percent of the homes in Honk Kong. Hong Kong Telecom is a subsidiary of Cable & Wireless, a communications company with 17 million customers in 70 countries.
Portugal Telecom SA and Microsoft will jointly develop (March 1999) interactive video and data services. The objective of the agreement is to accelerate the deployment of new broadband and wireless technology and services for delivery to customers in Portugal. In addition, Microsoft will invest US$ 38.6 million for an equity stake of 2.5 percent in TV Cabo, Portugal Telecom's cable and satellite television services company, which plans to launch broadband Internet services to residential customers later this year.
Microsoft has made a US$ 200 million investment in Qwest Communications who’s fiber communications network will span more than 18,500 route miles in the United States when completed in 1999. Qwest will use Microsoft software to deliver VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) (corporate intranets).
Microsoft has begun trials (March 1999) of its new high-speed DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) service in four U.S. cities. The MSN (MicroSoft Network), the ISP (Internet Service Provider) owned by Microsoft, Internet Access DSL provides consumers with Web access at speeds of up to 8 Megabits per second - up to 275 times faster than today's 28.8 Kilobit per second modem standard and up to thirty times faster than competitors' DSL offerings. MSN Internet Access DSL works across existing telephone lines, eliminating the need for a second voice line so consumers can navigate the Web while they talk on the telephone. In addition, the service is always turned on so there is no wasted time in dialing up for access to the Internet.
British Telecommunications plc. (BT) and Microsoft. announced (February 1999) a global agreement to develop a new range of Internet, intranet and corporate data services for mobile customers around the world. These services will allow mobile users outside North America to access securely the broad range of Microsoft Internet and corporate applications, on which they rely in the office and at home. Customers could, for example, access applications such as e-mail, calendaring, personalized web content and online information services using their digital mobile phone, pager, or handheld or laptop computer.
Trials are scheduled to begin in the United Kingdom this spring, with services expected to become available in several countries by early 2000. The new services will be developed and marketed worldwide by BT and Microsoft, and offered by Concert Communications Services, BT's global communications company. BT will accelerate the development and deployment of Internet-standards-based wireless services by selecting Microsoft microbrowser technology and Windows CE for manufacturers' handsets.
The BT mobile networks currently serve more than 13 million customers in 10 countries. Through Concert Communications Services BT reaches more than 40 countries outside North America. BT's global partnership with Microsoft bridges the divide between computing and mobile communications, enabling customers to see what they want on the phone, meeting the needs of those who need to communicate on the move, and allowing them to be reachable and remain connected to vital information at all times.
Microsoft has identified senior citizens and physically challenged persons as an important markets, markets that could potentially provide competitors with an entree to Microsoft’s more conventional areas of operation. Microsoft has long worked to make its products accessible to senior citizens and physically challenged individuals. The new accessible features of Office 2000 continue this work and build Microsoft’s presence in yet another two markets.
Microsoft sponsored research findings that show a ‘digital divide', or the growing gap between computer users and nonusers, significantly affecting older Americans. While approximately 50 percent of Americans own and use computers, only 24 percent of seniors (ages 60 and older) do. These statistics show that computer use among senior citizens is less than half that of the general population. The research was conducted to better understand and quantify the sociological impact of the digital divide and was unveiled at the 45th annual conference of the American Society on Aging (ASA) in Orlando, Florida (March 1999).
Microsoft has created a Senior Initiative program aimed at bridging the digital divide and ensuring that seniors are not left on the side of the information highway. By providing access to information technology and PC literacy training, the Microsoft Senior Initiative is introducing the exciting possibilities of technology to senior citizens.
Microsoft launched the Seniors & Technology website, ( http://www.Microsoft.com/seniors/), in October of 1997 to serve as a conduit for information on programs, partners and products for seniors, their families and their communities. This site includes resources and community based training programs, tips and tricks as well as profiles of how technology has impacted the lives of seniors.
Since August 1996, Microsoft has been holding information seminars designed to provide a basic understanding of computer and Internet usage for seniors citizens. Based on the demand and excitement for these programs, and working with AARP and SeniorNet, Microsoft launched the Lifetime Connections Program in August 1997. Since then, Microsoft has completed over 800 informational seminars to 70,000 seniors throughout the country. Co-sponsored by Sony, this program provides mature Americans an opportunity to explore and learn of the world of computers and the Internet in a friendly environment. Microsoft has been a supporter of SeniorNet for the past decade, providing a combination of software, training curriculum, cash, and equipment grants.
In October, 1998, with the goal of reaching under-served communities and providing PC Literacy training, Microsoft announced a two-year grant worth over $1 million, to upgrade and expand SeniorNet's 140 Learning Centers.
Microsoft works with Julia Alvarez, Ambassador, Alternate Permanent Representative of the Dominican Republic to the United Nations to better understand the needs of Seniors in third-world countries and how technology can provide exciting possibilities to them and develop their communities. In April 1998, Microsoft participated in a United Nations conference on worldwide aging, preparing delegates for the "UN Year of Older Persons" in 1999. Microsoft's presentations highlighted the convergence of aging and technology and the benefits of PC and Internet usage. Other programs include a computer usability and accessibility day at the United Nations (December 1998).
Microsoft has continued its commitment to develop assistive technology, creating and allowing ease of use by users of all ages including ‘Active Accessibilities’ or accessibility options. These features allow users to easily change system configurations allowing the user to use their personal computer with greater ease. Examples include the ability to change the background color and font size to ease reading and the ability to change the keyboard for easier use by selecting ‘sticky keys’ allowing a user to depress one key at a time in instances where two keys need to be depressed at once. Other examples include visual warnings and captions instead of audible warnings.
In an effort to make computers and the Internet easier to use for people with disabilities, Microsoft announced (March 1999) a series of grants to non-profit research and educational institutions for original research in the field of accessibility. Titled ‘Exploring PC Accessibility: New Discoveries,’ the international grant program was created in December, 1998 to complement and extend the work Microsoft and other software and hardware vendors are doing to make computers easier and more useful for people with a variety of disabilities.
The announced grants, ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 for concept exploration and technology development respectively, were presented at the annual California State University Northridge ‘Technology and Persons with Disabilities’ conference by the director of accessibility at Microsoft.
Bill Gates often talks about a computer on every desktop. For people with disabilities, the PC can be enabling technology in the workplace and education, and it can provide a vital connection to other people as a basic means of communication. In addition to making Microsoft products accessible, Microsoft has a goal of equipping and motivating the development community to produce the best accessibility solutions.
Microsoft’s Exploring PC Accessibility: New Discoveries grant program is one of many initiatives Microsoft is undertaking to improve the features and usability of PC and Internet technology for people with disabilities. For example, new and improved accessibility features have been announced in a number of upcoming product releases, including the Microsoft Office business suite and the Windows 2000 operating system. In addition, Microsoft’s Accessibility and Disabilities Group recently hosted the company’s newly formed Accessibility Advisory Council, consisting of representatives from advocacy groups, user groups, and research organizations in the disability community.
Microsoft has an extensive philanthropy program. For example, Bill and Melinda Gates gave 200 million US dollars worth of computer hardware to libraries and Microsoft gave 200 million US dollars of software to libraries. This increases the likelihood that people, particularly children, visiting libraries will have the opportunity to use Microsoft software.
As part of a new and continuing program (October 1998), Microsoft assisted a third party in distributing 55 million US dollars to students planning to take Microsoft technical courses from February and September 1998. These loans will help expand the ranks of the 300 thousand persons already certified as trained to work with Microsoft products. Some of these certified persons will work for the 15,500 Microsoft certified solution providers who do systems integration using Microsoft products.
Microsoft has spent over twenty years establishing a solid, unshakable foundation in information processing. Microsoft depends on no one for its core software products. Having established ownership in the domain of information processing, Microsoft is moving to assume its newly built heritage in information content, asserting its dominion in banking and finance, the stock market, car sales, travel, telephonic and Internet communications, and document management. From it's unassailable position in information processing, Microsoft can gradually increase the expression of its long ago won hegemony in the world of information at the slow, decades-long, unstoppable pace it has become known for.
To put these initial information content forays into perspective, information can be seen as constituting fifty to ninety percent of the world economy when analyzed from an information management point of view.
Bill Gates moved beyond the content of Microsoft's Bookshelf by purchasing the Bettmann Archive of photographs and starting the Corbis Archive. A few of the premier photography collections featured in the seventeen million photograph Corbis Archive include the Bettmann Collection, the LGI Collection, the Turnley Collection, Ansel Adams, and Roger Ressmeyer. The prestigious group of museums currently working (1998) with Corbis includes the Barnes Foundation, The National Gallery in London, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The State Hermitage Museum, the Kimbell Art Museum, and the Seattle Art Museum. Over one million of the images have been digitized, making the Corbis Archive the largest digital photographic archive in the world.
With the release of Microsoft's annual specification for PC hardware, starting with PC 97, and testing by Microsoft's in- house hardware compatibility test lab, Microsoft now has more control over PC hardware than Apple has over Mac hardware, even though Microsoft makes almost no PC hardware. Microsoft achieved this by indicating that Microsoft software may not run on PC hardware that does not meet the Microsoft PC NN (e.g. PC 99) hardware specification.
Microsoft's hardware compatibility test labs are busy around the clock, testing the compatibility of hardware and software. The labs maintain computer systems from more than 300 different manufacturers. For the first beta release of Windows 2000, and for each Windows 20NN operating system build (the process of assembling the components of an operating system) thereafter, at the rate of one build per day, the labs test more than 400 video adapters, more than 1,400 printers, more than 350 net cards, and more than 2,600 modems against the current day’s version (or build) of Windows 20NN. Every day more devices are tested and declared Microsoft compatible and are added to the test systems (test suite). These devices can then be sold with a Microsoft compatible logo on their packaging.
- - - Editors’ note: end of part 3 - - -The Microsoft environment is not just Microsoft's increasingly comprehensive product line. It is the mystique, the aura, the cachet (royal seal of quality), and the royal protection of Microsoft. Customers buy and learn Microsoft products because they know the Microsoft products will always be around; the customer's investment will never be lost. And if Microsoft drops a product, at least the Microsoft product was the least likely to disappear of all the similar products in the market place.
If a Microsoft product is not so good, at least it will have the most customers working (and paying) to make it better. If it takes a long time for a Microsoft product to get better, at least Microsoft has the most staying power to improve the product in the long run. If Microsoft does not have a feature or function yet, its customers are able to wait. They waited years for the features of the Mac GUI. If you are working with someone else, they are probably using the same Microsoft product you are using. If you are having problems with the Microsoft product, then your collaborator is probably having the same problems, will understand your delays, and can help.
In the old days people said that you would never lose your job if you 'bought IBM', because if IBM could not do it, no one could do it. Today Microsoft is the safe bet because if you fail with Microsoft, no one will have done better than you, because they all used (and failed with) the same Microsoft products. And, if your peers did not fail with Microsoft products, you can use your peers' solution; and Microsoft Consulting Services will help you.
Whole industries have grown up in niches created when Microsoft products do not completely fill a need. Novell and third party networking is an example. The third parties complete the Microsoft solution package, enhancing Microsoft sales and establishing a market for the new product. After the third parties grow the niche into a market large enough to justify Microsoft's interest, Microsoft enters the market niche with a Microsoft product tailored to the niche. Everyone then buys the Microsoft product and Microsoft benefits again.
Once customers enter the Microsoft environment, all they see are Microsoft solutions. This could be called paradigm marketing, where the customer is first sold on the idea, or paradigm, that the place to buy software is Microsoft. Then, when the customer goes to buy software, they only see Microsoft products to select from. The premiere example of paradigm marketing is the product category of operating systems. (DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT nee Windows 2000 are operating systems.) Most people have never heard of operating systems as a product category, and have not considered spending time evaluating operating systems. People only know that you buy Windows (a Microsoft product) when you buy a computer.
In the old days, when an IBM salesperson said that no solution existed, they did not see the necessity of explaining that they meant that IBM did not have a solution. If a solution was not available from IBM, then it was unavailable to the salesperson. And, therefore, it was unavailable to the customer. Similarly, the best solution available was, by definition, the best solution available from IBM. (The best solution within the IBM paradigm.)
One of the best things about being in a paradigm is that a paradigm does not need to be explained, it just is. Explanations are long and technical. No one wants to listen to, or discuss, or, heaven forbid, evaluate a long and technical explanation. People just want to do the best thing (for example, buy Windows) and get on with their jobs.
The Microsoft environment is international, worldwide, universal. More than half of all Microsoft sales are outside the United States. Microsoft, itself, has offices in more than 48 countries. To reduce the costs of internationalization, and to pass these benefits on to all Microsoft third party software developers and to all Microsoft end users, Microsoft is moving to a common code set for all languages.
From a marketing perspective, the Microsoft paradigm, like all paradigms, has to be universal, all encompassing. Therefore, Windows 2000 is designed to support al the languages of the world equally; including the large character set languages like Chinese. Windows 2000 is also timeless, in that it is able to support all the ancient languages as well. To provide this universal language support, Windows 2000 text is based on the Unicode character set which uses 16 bit bytes, and can represent 65,536 characters. This replaces the older 8 bit bytes of ASCII (the ANSI (American National Standards Institute) Standard Code for Information Interchange), which could only represent 256 characters. With the Unicode character set, all characters, of all languages, are available simultaneously for use anywhere in the operating system, application, or content.
Windows 2000 will expand on this universal language support by making the user interface language independent. The same user interface code can support all languages (when language modules for all languages have been written). With 2000 as a foundation, all Microsoft products will eventually follow and become language independent.
In 1999 or 2000, when Windows 2000 is released (expected October 6, 1999): (1) Windows 2000 Professional will be the workstation version, replacing Windows NT 4.0 Workstation, (2) a Windows 2000 Professional - Lite (currently undifferentiated and un-named) may replace Windows 98, successor to Windows 95 in the office (may slip to Windows 2001 or later, Windows 2000 Workstation is the current substitute), (3) Windows 2000 Home (currently un-named) may replace Windows 98, successor to Windows 95 in the home (may slip to Windows 2001 or later, Windows 98, Second Edition is the current substitute), (4) Windows 2000 Server – Lite (currently un-named) may server workgroups of under 25 systems, (5) Windows 2000 Server will provide up to dual processor support for departmental servers, (6) Windows 2000 Advanced Server will provide organization wide server support with up to 4 processors, (7) Windows 2000 DataCenter will provide enterprise wide server support with up to 16 processors and up to 64 GigaBytes of RAM (Random Access Memory), (8) Portable Windows 2000 (currently un-named) may replace Windows CE for handheld computers and cell phones (the name change may precede the design change) (may slip to Windows 2001 or later), and (9) Windows 2000 Super-Lite (currently un-named At Work version) may be used in embedded controls for television sets, DVD players, appliances, office equipment, automobiles, and industrial devices (may slip to Windows 2001 or later). With NT operating all known computer configurations as Windows 2000, the 'NT' of 'Windows NT' will fade away and the ubiquitous operating system, that operates everywhere, will be known as 'Windows' (‘Windows 2000’ in the upcoming release).
The size of a company can be described as the price one would have to pay to purchase the company. To buy Microsoft, one would have to buy all the Microsoft stock. The total value of all the Microsoft stock is now approximately 500 billion US dollars. This makes Microsoft the largest company in the world. Microsoft is larger than General Motors, larger than General Electric, larger than AT&T, and larger than IBM.
The reason investors are willing to pay so much for a company with so little in annual sales is that investors can see that Microsoft has a very, very rosy future. That is, to varying degrees, investors believe that Microsoft is heir to the information economy.
As noted above, information can be seen as constituting fifty to ninety percent of the world economy when analyzed from an information management point of view. If the world economy is 20 trillion US dollars, and if the information economy is 75 percent of the world economy, then Microsoft’s potential share is 15 trillion US dollars, 1 thousand times more than the approximately 15 billion US dollars that Microsoft grosses today.
Microsoft accounts for its profits in an extremely conservative way, and still nets over 1 billion US dollars in profits per quarter; over 4 billion US dollars in profits per year.
Microsoft expenses almost all development costs, rather than capitalizing them, and still nets over 4 billion US dollars per year. Almost all of Microsoft’s expenditures are for future products and future return from current marketing efforts, yet Microsoft consistently expenses its investment in its future against current earnings. Microsoft’s current expenses to sell its current products are the cost of reproducing the DVD’s and CD’s that contain their software.
If Microsoft sold a new version of all of its products to each of its 100 million customers each month, this would cost less than 2 billion US dollars per year using DVD’s that will soon cost less than one US dollar to reproduce all Microsoft products on a single media unit. This would leave a net profit of over 13 billion US dollars per year and capitalized development expenses of about 9 billion US dollars per year to be amortized over the lifetime of Microsoft’s products. Viewing the DVD as too expensive, Microsoft is planning to send customers frequent product updates for all Microsoft products over the Internet at no cost to Microsoft except for the servers feeding the Internet.
And, in another stroke of naming acumen, which has fortuitously evolved into astute legerdemainship, the name ‘Microsoft’ literally means ‘very small and soft’.
As litigations, to which Microsoft is party, drift toward settlement talks in the United States, the European Community, and perhaps some day the United Nations, it seems clear that a treaty would provide too much independence, and a merger, through direct and specific regulation, as was the case with IBM, might be more appropriate. It may even be that Microsoft will enjoy the competitive advantages of being open-source as a result of a settlement.
Microsoft’s daily press releases are at http://www.Microsoft.com/presspass/todaynews.htm, which makes an excellent start page in a web browser. Each press release represents years of work by a Microsoft team and often by teams in many cooperating companies in the computer world. It is not unusual to see five press releases in a day, and during a major tradeshow, Microsoft may have three or four times this many releases.
The last operating system designed to operate all known computer configurations was IBM's OS/360, announced in 1965 and delivered in partial working order in 1968. Thirty years later, renamed and updated versions of OS/360 still operated almost all mainframe computers. OS/360 created the paradigm that operating systems existed and that applications were separate from operating systems. Windows 2000, in 1999 or 2000, nee Windows NT 5.0, may reverse OS/360’s paradigm creation by creating a paradigm in which applications and operating systems are one-in-the-same, a continuum of features and function.
IBM was the creation of Tom Watson Sr., who learned his trade at NCR (the National Cash Register Company), starting in the 1890’s. Tom Watson Sr. influenced IBM into his 80's, and even influenced the creation of OS/360, ten years after his death. Microsoft is the creation of Bill Gates. In 30 years, in the 2030’s, Bill will be in his 70's and probably still having fun at Microsoft.
- - - Editors’ note: end of part 4 - - -
How did the buccaneers remember how many bits were in a byte? They called the bits pieces-of-eight. How did the buccaneers remember how many bits were in a quarter of a byte? They called them two-bits.
In the movie 2001, now about to make an anti-anachronistic rendezvous with the year 2001, the villainous computer was named HAL. By adding 1 to each letter of HAL’s name, one arrives at IBM. Dave Cutler, who developed Windows NT (now Windows 2000) for Microsoft, was hired from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) where he developed the Virtual Memory System (VMS) for the Virtual Address eXtension (VAX) computer. Adding 1 to each of the letters of ‘VMS’ one gets ‘WNT’. Microsoft already had Windows for the ‘W’. All that was necessary was to assign a meaning to the letters ‘N’ and ’T’. Being the King of generically anointed products such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft probably found ‘New Technology’ a wonderfully pastel choice.
Windows NT 5.0, rechristened Windows 2000, changes Windows NT 4.0 very substantially, in very many ways, and also adds very many completely new features. All of these changes are intended to benefit Windows customers, but all changes carry with them the possibility of software bugs. For this reason wags are wont to call Windows 2000 ‘Windows 00’. ‘Windows Oh Oh’, or ‘W2K’. [Article 001v35]
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Reprinted from Archive Planning, Volume 3, number 4, 1999, Archive Builders' analysis newsletter for document management.
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Article 001v35
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Steve Gilheany, BA in Computer Science, MBA, MLS Specialization in Information Science, CDIA (Certified Document Imaging System Architect), AIIM Master, and AIIM Laureate, of Information Technologies, CRM (Certified Records Manager, ARMA) has eighteen years experience in document imaging and is a Sr. Systems Engineer at Archive Builders.
Steve Gilheany is a Sr. Systems Engineer at Archive Builders. He has worked in digital document management and document imaging for eighteen years.
His experience in the application of document management and document imaging in industry includes: aerospace, banking, manufacturing, natural resources, petroleum refining, transportation, energy, federal, state, and local government, civil engineering, utilities, entertainment, commercial records centers, archives, non-profit development, education, and administrative, engineering, production, legal, and medical records management. At the same time, he has worked in product management for hypertext, for windows based user interface systems, for computer displays, for engineering drawing, letter size, microform, and color scanning, and for xerographic, photographic, newspaper, engineering drawing, and color printing.
In addition, he has nine years of experience in data center operations and database and computer communications systems design, programming, testing, and software configuration management. He has an MLS Specialization in Information Science and an MBA with a concentration in Computer and Information Systems from UCLA, a California Adult Education teaching credential, and a BA in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. His industry certifications include: the CDIA (Certified Document Imaging System Architect) and the AIIM Master, and AIIM Laureate, of Information Technologies (from AIIM International, the Association of Information and Image Management, (http://www.AIIM.org), and the CRM (Certified Records Manager) (from the ICRM, the Institute of Certified Records Managers, an affiliate of ARMA International, the Association of Records Managers and Administrators, (http://www.ARMA.org).
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