Windows 98 was supposed to come out in 1997... and my guess is that much of it might have even been slated for release in 1996. But despite three years of development, this is not a major upgrade... its a collection of bug fixes and other bits that most companies would offer for free as part of regular maintenance. You know when you buy a computer program and there's a number attached to it, like 3-point-oh? Then they fix some little things and you get a free upgrade to 3-point-one? Microsoft should be calling this Windows 95-point-one. And they should be releasing it for free, not charging close to a hundred bucks. And this is real frustration... that other software companies have better products and offer them at cheaper prices. :40

Microsoft is fond of saying its products provide innovations to the consumer. But that claim certainly doesn't apply to Windows 98. It may be slightly faster than Windows95, but things like better plug and play support aren't innovative, they're Microsoft's belated attempt to keep up with the rest of the market. What about more efficient use of hard drive space? That's been in other products for a while too. 1:00

The only "innovation" is the use of Microsoft's web browser. The integration of the browser into the operating system, incidentally, is one of things the Justice Department was fighting Microsoft over. Internet Explorer can look at both the internet *and* your local hard drive. But that's been available since early last year... *and* you can get it online for free. 1:25

Over the years, Apple, Amiga, IBM and others have given away minor operating system upgrades. But Microsoft is using its dominance of the Operating System market to gouge consumers. Some analysts say Microsoft's gross margins on Windows98 are as high as 92%... Why so high? Because they can. Despite falling prices across the industry, the price of Windows, says the Wall Street Journal, hasn't gone down at all. 1:55

I give credit to the press for recognizing that Microsoft has released a real dud in Windows 98, but they still need to go a few steps further. The truth is Microsoft doesn't really care about Windows98... its focused on building its next generation Operating System called WindowsNT. And guess what... its contains few true innovations... and is more than twice as expensive as Windows98. 2:20 [closer to 2:10...]