> David picks up a copy of Windows95

[Test system: IBM ThinkPad 750C, 8MB RAM, 340MB hard disk, NEC XP21
21" colour monitor driven at 1024x768.  Note: Obtaining additional RAM
and disk space for a ThinkPad is a very expensive proposition.
However, this just means that my situation resembles that of computer
users everywhere, instead of the computer elitist I normally am].

I.

It was really a corporate decision.  We make software for Windows, and
there's certainly been enough buzz that we suspect at least one or two
of our customers will pick up the new version.

So the firm patriarch called me into the conference room, and we all
sat around the conference table and talked about the hoopla that was
set up about the new Windows.  He mentioned that CompUSA was going to
be open past midnight so that copies of the program could be had
early; Fry's was going to open an hour early tomorrow, and there were
to be prizes and what-not for everyone.

All eyes were on me.  "Well," I said.  "Perhaps it would help with all
those 'Out of Memory' errors I'd been getting."  "Then we should buy
it immediately," said the boss.  To be perfectly honest, I wasn't so
sure that it would really work out that well, but I couldn't resist
getting a free pizza slice or two from CompUSA.  So it was decided:
At precisely midnight, we would go to CompUSA and pick up the new
Windows95. 

Our customers were counting on us.  We were counting on us.  Would
Windows95 deliver?

II.

The industry consensus on Windows95 has been very strange:  There
hasn't been one.  People who use it have either said it was a hopeless
abortion or the one true future hope; there has been virtually nothing
in between.  The consumer buzz on the product has been mostly covered
by Microsoft's propaganda; people seem convinced that something
important is coming, even though they don't know what it really means
to them.

Despite the hype and the hoopla, most responsible consumer
publications (such as the recent Newsweek and Wall Street Journal
coverage) are suggesting that people take a "wait and see" attitude.
However, there is also a clear consensus among the consumer media that
programmers and "power users" should plan on a quick switch to the new
software. 

I spent the afternoon cleaning up the Thinkpad's hard disk, in
preparation for this brutal attack on my remaining space.  I killed
off poor old OS/2 Warp, which I never used because I didn't have
enough space for its required 20MB swap file.  By sheer force of will,
I managed to clear off the 70MB or so necessary to run the new system.

Killing off OS/2 gave me a real pang.  I like the system a lot, but as
I said, I never had enough space to run it.  Then I deleted some
massive Windows programs (our competitors' stuff) to find room for
Windows95.  Not a fair world, is it?  Well, I could always bring back
OS/2 later, if Windows 95 is a flop.

We shall see.

III.

Well, we didn't get Windows95.

The Big Boss and I went into CompUSA, checked out various things and
left with a store brand Pentium 75.  The $ 999 price was too much for
him to resist, and I wasn't exactly trying to prevent him from doing
it.  But, since it included a free upgrade coupon for Windows95, we
decided against getting the software.  We have sent in our upgrade
card, and hopefully the new OS will appear in a week or three.

[David Dennis is a computer consultant and programmer who runs David's
Amazing Internet Services, a small Internet provider.  This review was
written on a 85mhz Sun clone system with the EMACS text editor.  Not
one byte of Microsoft software was used in its creation (although
several megabytes of the stuff was reviewed].