A decennary before sports fan start lining up outside Apple stores for the release of each newiPhonemodel , computer enthusiast inthe ' 90swere stoke when the bigtechcompanies dropped new operating systems .
window 98was bring out on June 25 , 1998 , and unlike today , you had to go to a computer depot and buy a forcible product with certificate of deposit - ROMs when you wanted to upgrade your microcomputer ’s functionality . Though some consumer felt Windows 98 was n’t a significant step forward from Windows 95 , the new version featured more web integration and slightly amend graphics , plus handy putz for networking and equipment driver support .
“ Computer users could watch a televised golf plot while simultaneously look up information about the track and golfers,”The Seattle Post - Intelligencermarveled , note Windows 98 ’s power to turn a microcomputer monitor into an “ synergistic tv … without wed up a telephone stock . ”
Stewart Cheifet , host of the TV showComputer Chronicles , devoted an sequence to talk about the new OS to answer a central question : “ Is it worth the 90 bucks ? “ Kim Akers , a product coach from Microsoft , essay to betray Cheifet on an exciting new feature . “ One of the things you’re able to do with Windows 98 , standardized to the WWW , you’re able to sail on your backbreaking drive using the backward and forwards buttons , just like you would on the web , ” she articulate . Akers demonstrates another map that lets users voyage from the hard private road to a web Thomas Nelson Page — in this case , the 1998 interlingual rendition of ESPN Sportzone — and back again using the newfangled buttons .
Stick with it for an interview with Linus Torvalds , the then-28 - year - old inventor of Linux , one of Windows ’ competitors in the late 1990s . Also fascinating is a review of a very fancy pager with a hardware keyboard made by the Canadian software system company RIM , which went on to plunge the BlackBerry in 1999 .
The dismissal of Windows 98 was n’t the first time computer pros freak out out about a new Microsoft operating system . Watch them get mad aboutWindows 95 in 1995 .
record More Tech Stories :
A version of this narrative was published in 2016 ; it has been updated for 2024 .
