On June 25, 1998, Windows 98 went on sale, and geeks like me were excited…ish. At the time, I saw it as a small incremental change from Windows 95, but of course I bought it.
Featuring lots of web integration and slightly improved graphics, Windows 98 wasn’t incredible—it wouldn’t be until Windows XP that a massive change in consumer Windows operating systems came—but it did have some handy features around networking and driver support. On the bright side, it introduced Windows Update. Ugh but yay?
Check out this vintage episode of Computer Chronicles all about the then-new operating system. Stick with it for an interview with Linus Torvalds, inventor of Linux. Also fascinating is a review of a very fancy pager with a hardware keyboard, made by RIM…who would go on to make a device called the BlackBerry starting in 1999.
Also of interest: Watch Computer Pros Get Excited About Windows 95…in 1995.
November 13, 2016 – 10:00am