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Press release page updated
http://www.pobox.com/~ericb/eric/pr.html has been updated to add yet
another important press release in the history of computing:
Microsoft to Integrate Swampland into Windows 98
Redmond, Washington. October 30, 1997. Microsoft today announced plans to
integrate swampland into Windows 98. Microsoft is partnering with an
undisclosed realtor, and will include titles with each copy of the new OS.
Pricing for the new integrated OS has not been set, but a Windows 98 beta
that incorporates the swampland is currently set to ship during the first
quarter of 1999.
"It's so natural," said Microsoft vice president Steve Ballmer, "to use
Windows in a swamp. Every consumer needs to have a small piece of swampland
in which to use Windows 98." Industry analysts agreed that integration of
swampland into the core of Windows 98 made sense, and observed that there
was little chance that the U.S. Department of Justice would challenge the
move. "The innards of Windows have long been murky," said Lem Ing, an
analyst with the Gardener Group. "Microsoft has been pursuing this trend
for so long that there will be no question that they have always treated
swampland as an integrated part of Windows--it's clearly not a separate
product market, and should therefore be exempt from DOJ action."
Microsoft's Ballmer answered reporters' questions about whether OEMs could
ship the product without swampland by stating, "No, we feel that would not
benefit consumers. Using Windows 98 in a swamp will be part of the pristine
Windows environment, and allowing deviations would cause confusion.
Besides, consumers have been asking us to do this for a long time."
Microsoft is so certain of the plan's success, said Ballmer, that it is
already making plans to integrate deeds for parts of the Golden Gate and
Brooklyn Bridges into the first Windows 98 OEM update, code-named "Animal
Farm."
--
Eric Bennett ( [email protected] ; http://www.pobox.com/~ericb )
Viewers/Converters for common internet file formats at
http://www.pobox.com/~ericb/xplat/xplat.html
Hundreds of software companies came to me with concerns that Microsoft
violated the 1995 consent decree. - U.S. Senator Conrad Burns, R-Montana
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