---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 01 Feb 2001 20:33:28 +0500
From: Geetha Shamanna <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Microsoft phasing out Windows 95
Microsoft phasing out Windows 95
By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
January 31, 2001, 12:20 p.m. PT
For Windows 95, the end is here.
Microsoft has taken steps to ensure that Windows 95 will become an
asterisk in terms of sales. One of Microsoft's most popular products
among
both consumers and businesses, the operating system is still in use at
many corporations today.
The licenses that let most computer makers incorporate the OS in new
computers expired Dec. 31. As a result, Dell Computer and other
computer
makers no longer install the OS on new computers except under special
circumstances.
"Beginning January 01, 2001, Dell is no longer licensed to factory
install
Windows 95," states an "end of life" notice on Dell's Web site.
In addition, Microsoft is not offering the OS 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.
"Windows 95 is definitely a legacy, discontinued program. None of the
systems coming from the manufacturers has Windows 95 anymore.
Everything
has either Windows 2000 or 98," said Mark Romanowski, vice president
of
services for Long Island City, N.Y.-based dealer Jade Systems.
Still, Romanowski added, it's not impossible to obtain the OS. "We may
blow (the pre-installed operating systems) away and put in Windows 95
or
NT 4, if that's what the customer wants and they're uncomfortable with
Windows 2000," he said.
Even then, anyone who has purchased a copy of Windows 95 through a
dealer
or even a Windows 95 computer from a small manufacturer has had to pay
for
technical support calls since last fall. With Windows 98, a customer
gets
two free calls from Microsoft and often more from the dealer.
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. TV ads pulsing to the haggard Rolling Stones hit
"Start Me
Up" flooded the airwaves. Lighted images of Microsoft's logo were
projected upon skyscrapers. A virtual army of golf shirt-clad
Microsoft
employees were dispersed globally to distribute copies to computer
fans
who lined up at midnight to buy copies of it.
A quantum leap
To some degree, the OS lived up to its hype and created a more
enhanced
Internet experience. And in a relatively short time, it became a
standard
operating system for corporate computers.
"If you look at Windows 95, it was a quantum leap in difference in
technological capability and stability," Gartner analyst Neil
MacDonald
said.
Phasing out products, even ones that enjoyed a brief status as a pop
culture phenomenon like Windows 95, is part of the tech landscape.
Windows
95 doesn't work with a number of new devices coming on the market, so
its
exit from the market is inevitable.
Nonetheless, the decision to phase it out contains a financial motive
for
Microsoft, MacDonald said. The company wants customers to upgrade to
Windows 2000, the OS for business computers released last year that is
designed to replace Windows 95 as the business OS of choice.
Windows 2000 adoption has been slower than anticipated. With Microsoft
making Windows 95 difficult to obtain, customers will naturally
gravitate
toward Windows 2000, or at least toward Windows 98, he said.
Microsoft uses other methods to encourage customers to shift as well,
MacDonald said. Microsoft Office 10, the company's latest application
package, is not compatible with Windows 95, he said. Microsoft also
will
not provide bug fixes after Dec. 31 of this year, which encourages
migration.
A risk-management decision
"If you are a business, it becomes a risk-management decision when a
vendor says that they won't provide anymore bug fixes or security
fixes,"
MacDonald said.
People really burning for Windows 95, of course, can get it. Dell, for
instance, will sell the OS through its custom integration service. To
get
that service, though, customers must order at least 25 PCs, said Dell
spokeswoman Anne Camden. Dell also charges an additional fee for
burning
in the custom software.
Dell, however, will not "support," or provide consultation or
troubleshooting, on Windows 95 installed on machines bought after Dec.
31
of last year. For help, customers will need to call Microsoft, which
will
charge for the call.
Customers with licensing agreements for Windows 95 signed before the
end
of last year can also continue to buy the OS as permitted by the
contract.
The legacy of Windows 95 can be seen in Microsoft's balance sheets.
The OS
jump-started years of growing revenue and profits for Microsoft and
introduced computing to millions. Ironically, the OS also contributed
to
the feeling of anticlimax that grips the company today. Simply put,
Windows 98, Windows Me and some other successors have not been as
impressive. Customers aren't upgrading just to get the new OS.
"There is not a whole lot of difference between Windows 95 and Windows
98
and Windows 98 and Windows Me," MacDonald said. "How many bells and
whistles can you continue to add before no one cares?"
Staff writer Mary Jo Foley and News.com's Joe Wilcox contributed to
this
report.
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