Windows 98 leaves users underwhelmed

Users have given Windows 98 a resounding vote of no confidence, in an exclusive poll conducted by Silicon News.

Delegates at the UK's Networks Telecom 98 show overwhelmingly put their support behind Windows NT in favour of what they see as a minor upgrade to consumer-based Windows 98. Many said they were unimpressed by the striking similarity of Windows 98 to its predecessor.

William Forrester, head of development at the BMA, commented: "We are going to NT5 when it is delivered. There doesn't seem to be much benefit in going from 95 to 98. There seems to have been very little change."

Tom Cherril, LAN consultant at Whitbread, dismissed the new operating system (OS) as a viable technology for big organisations. "We are going straight to NT. We don't see Windows 98 as a strategic corporate OS," he said.

Meanwhile, some users said they had been left behind in the OS race. Alan Brown, datacoms specialist at the Environment Agency, said "We haven't even gone to Windows 95 yet. That will be our first move."