It has been clear ever since Microsoft Corp committed to putting the Windows95 user interface on Windows NT that the latter was going to be the better bet for corporate computing, and now US PC Week hears that Microsoft plans to formalise the situation next year. It will declare NT Workstation its standard for corporate desktops, while follow-on releases to Windows95 will be relagated to home, small business and Internet users, the paper says. It came across loud and clear that NT Workstation will be the corporate standard, while the next generation of Windows will be for the home, an attendee at Microsoft’s OEM conference who requested anonymity told the paper, and other attendees confirmed that Microsoft acknowledged that corporate adoption of Wundows95 had been lower than it had expected. NT Workstation has an estimated retail price of $320, and some OEM customers said Microsoft warned them to expect licensing fees as much as 15% above current rates per machine when negotiating their 1996 licences for NT Workstation. On the Windows95 front, goodies in the works include a built-in personal information manager; better Internet support via integration with the user interface; compliance with HyperText Mark-up Language 3.0, enhanced Internet wizard; an integrated newsreader; conferencing based on T.120 and H.320 standards; improved ISDN support; and support for DirectX 2.0, Reality Lab 2.1, and Quartz 2.0 MPEG multimedia, plus multimedia objects including JPEG, Audio-Visual Interface, and QuickTime. The Web offerings will come in an Internet Add-On for Windows95 and NT, which will include integrated support for Web searching, HTML 3.0 and Java support, a new Internet wizard, single-button Internet connection, and Internet-based telephony support, it said.
