Bill Gates has firmed up prices for Microsoft Corp’s Windows NT operating system, but the first ships date has moved off into the future again, and no later than August 1 is the new target: according to Gates, in comments reported in PC Week, large corporate customers looking to upgrade from Windows 3 to NT will be able to do so for less than $100 per desktop – the upgrade price for Windows users will be $300, which translates to $180 on the street and less than $100 per system after deep volume discounts, Gates told a meeting of the Corporate Association of Microcomputer Professionals in Chicago; OS/2 users will be offered extremely low prices; NT’s suggested retail price for new – desktop – users will be $500; more bad news is that memory requirements are continuing to soar – Gates last week recommended that NT users install 16Mb on their desktop machines, even though the documentation may specify 12Mb – and no more than about 10% of 80486 machines have 16Mb; servers could require more than 16Mb, he added; initial NT buyers will need to have specific applications in mind for it If you don’t know why you want NT, you probably don’t want NT, he said.
