My years as a corporate LAN Administrator came out. It was ugly. But, hey, the demonstration of printing on a LAN was absolutely fantastic. I would have called my Microsoft rep the next day to buy a site license . . . What was the demonstration? LAN PRINTING! What is so big about it? Well, a typical scenario when you set up a Windows client is to load Windows on the workstation, load the network drivers, connect to the printer, load the printer drivers and test the printing. Ugh! An hour per machine.

With Windows 95 when it is installed it finds your network. No drivers to load on your part. Once you are up and running all you have to do is connect to a network printer. Once you do that Windows 95 will automatically download the drivers needed to print to that printer! Amazing! This is network computing!

After I regained my composure, I noticed they were showing another video clip. This video clip starred Adam, 9, the world's youngest beta tester. When asked by the interviewer how Windows 3.1 compared to Windows 95 he replied, "Ridiculous to sublime." The laughter in the room was so deafening they almost had to restart the clip. We learned that Adam uses his computer for research, programming and game playing.

The PMs started showing off the home features of Windows 95. This is when the crowd really started getting into it! The first thing they showed was the Plus addon for Windows 95. This CDROM adds a bunch of capabilities and addons to WIndows 95. The neatest thing about this CD is that you can customize your desktop based on themes. For example, the MYSTERY theme changes your system sounds and makes your cursor walking footprints while you are waiting. They had the 60s and a bunch more. Cool.

They then accessed the Internet. Jumping onto the WWW they made it look pretty easy. It was easy. They have a typical browser in the Plus Pack, so you are set. But what they did next was unbelievable. They dragged their favorite web site over to the desktop. This made their favorite web site one click away from connection.

Kid's software was the next demo from the PMs. This was pretty neat ... but the crowd quickly lost interest. Sensing this the PMs then went on to demonstrate the vaunted Microsoft Network (MSN) .

They loaded the MSN software and proceeded to dial. We waited and waited and waited. Disconnect. The PMs started to sweat. Again, they dialed and we waited and waited and waited. Disconnect. At this point they had a critical decision to make. Blame themselves or blame someone else. They blamed themselves! They inferred that testing was happening at MSN and that the network was too busy to get on.

After this failure they moved onto the CDROM aspect of Windows 95. Everyone who has beta tested Windows 95 knows that when you put an audio CD into the player it automatically starts playing. The PMs did this and Bob Dylan started singing. Pretty Cool, but I have seen that done that. They then opened the CDROM on the desktop and whoa there were files on the CD! They then installed something from the CD! What? Wasn't this an audio CD? Yes, but it is CD format called CDPLUS! After they installed the files from the CDROM the audio started playing again, but now we had a whole application on Bob Dylan. We could learn trivia about Bob, see photos of Bob and even follow a bouncing ball through the lyrics of Bob Dylan. Damn Cool! CDPLUS is compatible with the CDAUDIO format, so the CD plays on any audio player known to man. CDPLUS was developed by Microsoft, Phillips and Sony. Oh, and when the CDROM is removed, the application that was on the CDROM deinstalls itself!

OK, now I was really pumped! The PMs started showing off games developed with the Windows 95 game library. The first was Activision's Pitfall Harry. Let me tell you -- buy Activision stock now! The animation was more fluid than any computer game I have ever seen! The next game we saw was Fury3 (cubed) by Microsoft. This was a flying game that makes Terminal Velocity from Apogee look like an old Atari 2600 game. The last game was saw was the much rumored WinDoom. The crowd had a chance to vote on whether to see Doom for DOS run under Windows 95 or WinDoom. The crowd overwhelmingly chose WinDoom. The PMs loaded this and played. Of course they sucked at playing, but you couldn't tell the difference! It was as fluid and as violent as the normal Doom. By this time I could barley stay in my seat. The fact that games could now be played under Windows for real was too much. I could hardly believe it.

As the WinDoom left the screen the crowd settled for being disappointed in whatever was shown next. The PMs stated that the next demo was the last of the evening. They also made a disclaimer that what we were about to see was running on a Compaq Deskpro with 16 megabytes and a normal video card. Hmmm, now I was interested . . .

I settled back into my seat as the screen blackened. Then, I heard it, a familiar theme song. Yes, it was from Mortal Kombat! No, this wasn't Mortal Kombat for Windows 95, it was a FULL SCREEN AVI movie trailer for Mortal Kombat the movie. The crowd sat mesmerized as we watched the screen as if ti were a movie. Well, it was a movie. But never before, on any PC or platform have I witnessed full screen movie motion as fluid and well timed as this. There were no delays in speech. As Johnny Cage fought Scorpion you could see each move. Goro's many arms flailed in unison as if he were alive. The clip lasted a little over 2 minutes. Those had to have been the most awe inspiring two minutes I have ever spent watching a computer. This surely beat the heck out of any demonstration I have ever seen!

After the AVI ended the crowd responded with a standing ovation. Windows 95 had shown itself to be real and to be here.

Oh, the raffle was won by a lady who liked like she was drug there by her husband. When she won the notebook system her husband was much more excited <grin>

So what did I learn from this show? A few things:

• Windows 95 is going to be hot.
• Windows 95 is going to be easier to use.
• Windows 95 isn't as technically there as Windows NT or OS/2, but then again, it wasn't designed to be.
• Windows 95 needs a 486/33 with 8 megabytes of RAM to run well.
• Microsoft can market.
• Microsoft can market well.

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