Re: Windows NT vs. 95 for a writer

Subject: Re: Windows NT vs. 95 for a writer
From: Tim Poulsen <Tim_Poulsen -at- ZD -dot- COM>
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 1995 13:30:25 -0400

In her note, Suzanne Pyle says:
>1. Windows 95 : I've heard some people are waiting to see how it will
>perform; and others are sticking to what they know with Windows 3.11 and
>still others are proposing Windows NT. Mmmm. Is Nt and 95 the same, or have
>similarities? And if you're a contractor like myself, do you find yourself
>considering your interface capabilities if you select one over the other? I
>personally am leaning toward Windows NT because it has been around a while
>and does perform well, however am wondering if this will interfere with
>being compatible with clients.

Win NT and Win 95 are not the same. Win 95 is designed for end-users and your
usual business-type users. Win NT is is aimed at power-users or those that need
specialized applications (or people like me that just like to be different).

As such, each has features designed to meet the needs of its typical user. Win
95
has all the features that most typical users, business users, and home users
will
want. For example, 95 offers the new user interface, plug 'n play hardware
support,
built-in sound and multimedia support, and so on. Win NT has features that
network
administrators, workstation users, and so forth would like. So, it has features
to
support multiple users, security, special programming interfaces (like support
for
SGI's OpenGL graphics engine), and so forth.

You will find that not every Windows application will run on NT (though most
will).
Those that do might have some limitations. My company's standard is Windows 3.x.
and Word for Windows. I cannot use the custom macros or any of the add-on
packages we use because those add-ons won't work on Word for Windows NT.

The situation is probably the same right now with Win 95 -- not all
applications will
work perfectly and some might not run at all. But, since Win 95 is targetted at
the
mass market, you can bet that software vendors will update their apps to run on
Win 95. I wouldn't make that same bet about Win NT.

Be prepared to be a bit of a system administrator if you use Win NT. It is
designed
to be a client/server system. You might find yourself worrying about creating
user
accounts, managing security, and tweaking network configurations even if you're
the only one that uses your system.

Good luck in your choice,
Tim Poulsen, Microsoft Certified Product Specialist, Certified NetWare Engineer
Technical Writer, Logical Operations, a division of Ziff-Davis Publishing
tim_poulse -at- zd -dot- com

(All opinions are mine alone and not my employer's.)


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