Microsoft Windows

Like it or not, it's a Windows world. The federal government may not prove in a court of law that Microsoft is a monopoly that has run afoul of anti-trust statutes. But, if not de jure, the Microsoftians indeed have a virtual monopoly on operating systems.

The business community in Southwest Florida has few practical alternatives to various iterations of the Windows operating system for automating their organizations. In all but niche markets (the Mac, for example) or incredibly demanding enterprise-wide computer applications (UNIX and other big iron operating systems), Microsoft has things completely sewn up. That's the bad news. But, it's also the good news - if Gates and his team continue to deliver high quality products.

Early looks at Windows 2000 suggest that Microsoft is on the right track. Formerly dubbed Windows NT 5.0, Windows 2000 is designed to accommodate the needs of end-users without compromising the needs of computer professionals. Win2000 is the logical merger point for the two strands of Microsoft technology - personal and business computing. But, it's been a long, dusty road from the world of PCs as curiosities in the 1970s to PCs as the driving force behind information technology for the 21st century.

How we got here

Personal computers entered the world with modest ambitions. Today, PCs configured as workstations and servers in sophisticated network configurations are already running very complex applications in very large organizations. I doubt that even Bill Gates had imagined this future when he linked up with IBM in 1980.

IBM, like most of its contemporaries in the late 1970s and early 1980s, sneered at the personal computer. This was in the heyday of the Apple II when Steve Jobs smugly welcomed IBM to the market in a full page Wall Street Journal ad in August of 1981. Bill Gates, then 25, had bought and modified a basic operating system; IBM, in turn, licensed it to run the IBM PC. That product, MS-DOS, did little more than manage computer files and perform simple computing tasks. In fact, it had never been designed to be more than a two-stroke engine powering single-user personal computers. It was so small that it fit on an early floppy disk. And it cost Gates only $50,000. That's the computer equivalent of buying Manhattan from the Indians for $25.

That was then. This is now.

Windows 95, 98, NT, and soon Windows 2000 are, in fact, 2000 times larger than MS-DOS 1.0. Although they may not have 2000 times the power and functionality, they are performing tasks that only IBM-style mainframe computers could do in 1981. Moreover, they enable even relative computer novices (my favorite aunt, Mary Eaton, for example) to perform activities with little training that required geek-like intensity and ability 20 years ago. I'm sure I wasn't the only one to enter a computer store in the late 70s, look at the blinking cursor on a screen and promptly turn and head for the door.

The PC as Essential Business Tool

Bill Gates might not have known precisely where Microsoft was headed in 1981. But he had a very clear picture by 1988. Windows 2.0 was in use. It wasn't a huge favorite but was gathering some momentum. Its graphical user interface enabled new users to get work done with little training and firmly established the "Windows" metaphor for computing that Apple had begun with the Macintosh in 1984. Although it's hard to imagine now, relatively few pundits foresaw the overwhelming desktop domination of Microsoft, of its Windows operating systems and of its applications in 1988. Windows was in large part just window-dressing for the MS-DOS operating system that dated to 1981. It was easier to use but carried forward many limitations.

But Gates was thinking way beyond the desktop in 1988. He had hired an operating systems genius, Dave Cutler (along with most of his team), from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Although DEC has now fallen victim to the rise of the PC, in 1988 it was a multi-billion dollar giant whose minicomputers ran a powerful operating system, called VMS, developed by Cutler. In 1988, Cutler and company began work on the software that became Windows NT in 1993.

Thus, a decade ago, Microsoft was beginning the development of the NT operating system that would enable PCs to replace expensive mainframe and minicomputers. Now in version 4.0, NT has very little relationship to its cousins, Windows 95 and 98, when you look under the hood. Why? Because it was designed from the ground up to run mission-critical applications within networked environments of all sizes.

To a large degree, NT has displaced UNIX as a general-purpose operating system and Novell's NetWare as a network operating system. But until recently it has suffered from the problems of UNIX and NetWare - normal human beings find it too complex and difficult. For the rest of us, Microsoft has pitched Windows 95 and subsequently Windows 98. But, that's all about to change.

For Business: It's Windows 2000; Like it or Not

In January 1998, we wrote about the many reasons to consider Windows NT 4.0 in your organization and used Northern Trust in Southwest Florida as an example of a successful installation - with 120 users in a networked environment. We also quoted Northern Trust's consultant, John Oney, in his skepticism about the then unborn Windows 98. Oney went out on a limb and predicted that Win98 might never see the light of day. He also suggested that, even if it arrived, it would be a marginal business player.

He missed the first call, but I believe he is dead right on the second. As the weeks and months go by, it's becoming clear that the all purpose business operating system will be the Windows NT - now renamed Windows 2000.

Branding tells the story. Business users have increasingly referred to Windows NT simply as "NT." But that threatened Microsoft's strategy of Windows everywhere. It wasn't really "Windows;" it was "NT." Moreover, Microsoft has made it abundantly clear that Windows 98 is the last of its line. There will be bug fixes and patches, but that's it. Thus the operating system series that began with Windows 1.0 in 1995 will soon end with Windows 98. The successor will be one of the many flavors of Windows 2000. The king is dead. Long live the king.

Many business users may feel somewhat confused and betrayed by this anointing of Windows 2000, if they are using Windows 95 or 98 on the desktop. After all, Microsoft initially positioned Windows 95 as the "desktop" operating system, with NT as the "server" operating system. When Windows 98 arrived last June, it fixed a lot of Win95 problems and brought some significant new functionality.

In addition, Win 95/98 PCs can run office productivity applications and enable pretty functional peer to peer networks. That said, you will be settling for a dead-end solution with absolutely no future evolution. In fact, if you che