Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 6, 1995 TAG: 9508040019
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Microsoft's Windows 95 is scheduled to debut Aug. 24, following months of speculation and hype about the software's capabilities. Robert Davis, a technician at MicroNetics in Roanoke, has tested early versions of Windows 95 and thinks the final product will be worth the wait.
"It runs great," he said. "I'm running it at home now and I love it."
Windows software runs the basic functions of 80 million personal computers and is installed on eight out of 10 new PCs. A major new version of Windows has not been released since 1990. Windows 95 comes with video capability and simple access to Microsoft's on-line service.
At least one Roanoke dealer thinks it should include a bottle of aspirin, too.
"Don't tell Bill Gates, but I think people should hold their money and wait for the second version," said George Shen, owner of Roanoke's PC City Computers. "It's just going to be a big headache."
Shen isn't knocking the new Windows; he's wary of untried first-version software in general.
For the last several months, 40,000 people across the country have been subjecting Windows 95 test versions to the computer equivalent of the Samsonite gorilla test. Microsoft's tech services followed the testing and worked out bugs that appeared along the way.
But Shen, whose PC City Computers was one of the early test sites, worries that even this rigorous trial has been too limited to catch all the glitches.
"Most of it works OK," he said. His test results have been especially good when he has run Windows 95 with other Microsoft software, he said. But when he tried the new software with applications produced by other companies, the results were mixed.
Problems are bound to accompany any new software release. "There's thousands of programs out there, and someone on the fringe may have all kinds of problems," said Bart Wilner, general manager and owner of Entr Computer Center in Roanoke.
The Microsoft technical staff has told MicroNetics that the software should be released right on schedule, Davis said, but there are still no guarantees that everybody who wants a $100 upgrade will be able to get it on the Aug. 24 release date.
"It's almost like the new Michael Jackson album: Is it coming out or isn't it?" Davis said.
"Based on past experience, it would not surprise me if [Windows 95] were not readily available to the purchaser," Wilner said. Microsoft has said that production has been increased to keep up with estimated demand, he said, but added that the company may end up shipping only small quantities at a time.
Shen said his customers have shown quite a bit of interest in Windows 95. He has not been taking orders for the software but will do so if requested. Wilner's commercial clients, who comprise the majority of his customers, are less excited about the new Windows.
"We haven't had people knocking down our doors for it," he said. A business that is getting good results from Windows 3.11, the current version of the software, is unlikely to switch to the new version just for the sake of change, he said.
Windows 95 will offer many improvements over Windows 3.11, just as the first Windows software was a vast improvement over the earlier DOS software, Wilner said.
"But don't expect a panacea," he said.
|The Associated Press contributed to this report |PLEASE SEE REVIEWS/F2
by CNB