As I See It...

A weekly commentary
by James E. Felton

No. 2

You can bet that at this very moment Microsoft is hard at work on it's next version of Windows. In fact, previews of Windows 97 have already begun to appear. And, like the famous Spruce Goose Windows 97 will likely arrive late, over budget, and packed with all the excitement of a flying boat that didn't!

Fortunately I don't think it will matter much!

At the internet's current rate of evolution we will all be watching interactive 3-d movies, playing multi-player games, and ordering pizza through our TVs by the time Win97 hits the market! Well, ok, maybe not 3-d.

How can I make such an outrageous claim? Simple! I've been watching this thing progress since the release of Windows 95, and in 14 months we've gone from basic browsers to Java enabled web cruisers, and we are now days away from the first beta of Netscape Communicator (a very appropriate name, I might add).

And in the six months since the NC Reference Profile was first published numerous NCs have been built, WebTV is on sale in stores, Sega, Nintendo, and Pippin are close behind, and WorldGate Communications (among others) is planning widespread low cost/high bandwidth internet access in early 1997. In other words the race is on!

The simple fact is that working with a PC is alot like being alone on an island. Once you learn how (a long, expensive, and time consuming process) you can write letters, create spreadsheets, draw pictures, and build data bases. Then you can print them, and send them to someone like a message in a bottle!.

The internet frees you from that island and enables you as a member of the community. With a network connection you no longer have to depend on Windows crummy help system. You have a whole community to help you. Instead of having limited personal (or office) software you have access to unlimited network software. Instead of being limited to what you can store on your hard drive you have access to a whole world of information thats already stored for you. And more importantly, you have the ability to instantly share that information with others all over the world!

In the past 12 months my thinking has evolved to the point that I now view a (home, or office) computer as a digital multimedia communicator that is being held back by a little company named Microsoft for their own benefit.

Microsoft never figured on something like the internet coming along to disrupt the lifetime of upgrades they had planned for us. And once they saw its potential they jumped in with both feet! But, like a snowball rolling down a mountain the internet is steadily gaining momentum. And the best Microsoft can hope to do with Windows 97 is to slightly alter its course.

Related Information: Cable modems: Fast pipe, or pipe dream?

Have an opinion you'd like to share? Send it to me!

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