Windows 98 and one-time imprints

Yesterday (July 11), Microsoft officially stopped supporting about 70 million people worldwide who are using Windows 98. The time when US corporations launched this operating system is also when the Internet became popular.

If you reinstall the program, users will see the ad line "With Windows 98, you can use the Internet quickly and easily". This statement proves that in 1998, the new global connection network has gradually become familiar and consumers have only just begun to hear about predictions related to the dotcom boom period.

At that time, about 36 million web hosts were registered, and now this number is up to nearly 400 million. Although people can still network on a Windows 95-based system, the 1998 version marked the strategy of developing an operating system in parallel with Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser. Users can also monitor and navigate the location of the folders in the device with the Back (back) and Forward keys (back to the next section) similar to web browsing.

Microsoft claims Windows 98 makes accessing the web easier, but it is not easy to find a browser that works in harmony with the program. Internet Explorer 4.0 was so ancient that it was impossible to use it to download a new browser version from the software corporation's website.

Windows 98 is a big success for Microsoft. Interesting on the desktop of Windows 98 computers is a vertical bar on the right, containing links to about 35 Internet "channels" of Disney, Warner Brothers, AOL . and classified information such as news, awards. . This feature helps Microsoft partners "push" specific content to consumers. At that time, it was believed that Net would become a TV and people could open their favorite "channels".

The idea of ​​"push" content at that time was somewhat like RSS technology today. However, RSS allows people to freely choose what they want to see, and "push" provides information without knowing whether users like it or not.

"Push" and RSS show a clear difference between the views of 1998 and today. Back then, big companies thought they could control the Internet and then distribute it to users. For now, a company will be considered successful if it combines information flows and gives people more diverse options.

TN