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Windows 95 to make life easier, despite bad press

Arman Danesh

IT IS finally time to look at Windows 95. It may have been delayed until autumn and, some analysts predict, will be Windows 96, but now the beta 2 version is out it is starting to become clear what the final version will be.

It is also possible to look at how it has addressed the technological jump to the 32-bit world.

So, what does Windows 95 have to offer? Like OS/2, Windows 95 is a new approach to desktop computing. At the user interface level, it has been redesigned to become more object-orientated. Most objects, whether they are icons or the desktop itself, have properties that can be accessed through a right-button drop-down menu.

The redesigned interface has features similar to those that have been in OS/2 for several years, including page-tabbed properties boxes and a desktop-metaphor.

These are strikingly similar to the well-established MacOS environment, in which the desktop contains icons to access disk drives, folders, files and applications, effectively eliminating the need for the Program Manager and the File Manager.

Beyond this 'surface-level', though, much of the similarity ends. While OS/2 implements Windows support by installing a Windows 3.1 kernel over OS/2 so that Windows applications retain their familiar look and feel down to the radio buttons, with Windows 95 all applications, whether 16-bit or 32-bit, share a common, redesigned look and feel that is more three-dimensional with smaller windows controls.

Another component of the interface that it is important not to overlook is installation.

By implementing Plug-and-Play technology, Windows 95 installation procedures, at least with beta versions, are straight forward.

In most cases, the installation program can successfully detect and configure existing hardware with little required of the user. Application migration from DOS and Windows 3.1 seems to work quite well.

Of course, the interface is not the only thing at issue in the migration to 32-bit operating environments.

Microsoft has chosen to include much of the functionality that in earlier operating systems existed as add-ons and extensions, including built-in networking that provides fairly transparent access to several protocols such as NetWare and TCP/IP for Internet connectivity.

In order to make accessing communication data easy, Microsoft includes Exchange. This provides a front end to all incoming messages, including electronic mail and faxes, and provides a consistent mechanism for sending messages through the correct channels based on the recipient's location.

To provide the higher power of a 32-bit operating system, Windows 95, offers pre-emptive multitasking and more protection and stability from system crashes.

Unlike OS/2, though, it is not possible to run separate Windows 3.1 applications in separate virtual machines, so an application crash that would normally bring down Windows 3.1 is likely to crash all the 16-bit applications running in a Windows 95 session.

One area that plagued Windows 3.1 users was communication, in particular during modem transfers. Because the multitasking needed for efficient and stable background transfers was lacking, it was impossible to perform fast communications while working in the foreground.

Windows 95 addresses this with a new, 32-bit communications API that sits between programs and the physical communication hardware.

In this way, any communication application can call the communication API, irrespective of the type of modem sitting on the other side. The API will handle all the necessary work of talking to a particular hardware device.

Similarly, modem makers need only ensure compatibility with the API, and not a whole range of software packages.

The biggest advantage of this setup is that it allows many communication applications to be open at the same time, and call the communication sub-system without having to face the problems caused by conflicts under DOS and Windows.

For instance, a fax program can be waiting for incoming calls when a terminal application is opened to dial out to a network and disconnect. The communications API handles the arbitration so that the two applications can share one device.

Another area of emerging concern is networking, not in a local environment but with the outside world.

OS/2 has provided a complete tool set for graphical Internet access, and the necessary protocols, such as SLIP and PPP - but Windows 95 does not offer as much in this regard.

While Windows 95 offers the protocols needed, the set of client tools is lacking for Internet access.

Instead, Microsoft has chosen to include in Windows 95 the client software for its new Microsoft Network on-line service.

The inclusion may provide a gateway to the Internet, but it may also offend consumers who believe Microsoft now wants to dominate the software industry and the information services sector.

Nonetheless, this doesn't detract from the improvements in Windows 95 that make it an attractive upgrade option.

Sure, the media have been praising OS/2 as technologically superior - and it may be some respects. But Windows 95 is by no means as incomplete as it is made out to be.

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