SPECIAL EDITION!

Exclusive: Win98 Special Coverage Just For LangaList Subscribers
New Version of IE4 Available
Win98 Plus Announced
Online Auctions: Yea or Nay?
Does "Open" Source Code Really Matter?
Much More!

As a special "thanks" to LangaList readers, you’ll have early access to 2 full-length, illustrated articles on Win98 by Fred Langa. The first article will help you decide if it’s worth your time and money to upgrade to Win98; the second will show you the best, safest ways to upgrade, should you decide to go ahead.

The full-blown, test-based illustrated Feature article is geared to answering two major questions:

a) what's new and interesting about Win98; and
b) is it worth upgrading?

The Feature also includes information on real-life costs (including information on "hidden" costs!), common Q&As, how the tests were done and on what kinds of systems, and contains information about the built-in Browser.

The second part is a step-by-step How-To article walking you through the "best practices" you can take prior to any upgrade to ensure that the upgrade goes as safely and smoothly as possible.

Both articles are available right now to LangaList readers: later this week, they’ll be made available to the general public, but for now, they’re just for you!

You can access both articles through a single front door at

 New Version of IE4 Out

Microsoft has released a "service pack" version of IE4 that incorporates:

• 15 bug fixes
• 18 security fixes (previously released as separate patches)
• Year 2000 fixes
• Misc. other changes

Microsoft says most people don’t need the new version, but I’m grabbing a copy. (They say that only people who have experienced problems with IE4 need the patch---but I don’t know anyone who hasn’t had at least some significant trouble!)

Alas, there’s no separate patch; for you, until Microsoft makes a separate patch available, you have to re-download the whole of IE.

Microsoft has announced Beta1 of a "Plus" pack for Windows98; it will include McAfee Anti-Virus, File Cleaner, Picture It! Express and more. I’ll have more info ASAP. See: http://www.microsoft.com/windows98.

I recently got an email from Editor Mike Elgan wondering about the hoopla surrounding online computer auctions. You can get some great deals, and the mainstream press is starting to pick up on it, including a story in the New York Times. Some reports claim that online auctions will reach a sales volume of $1 Billion next year--- a number that took me by surprise. Mike wanted me to check it out.

The idea of online auctions is pretty simple: you visit a site, see what’s being offered, and place your bid. Some auctions are near-real-time, but most take place over several days. The pace is usually sedate, nothing at all like a live auction. You can check back to see how your bid is doing, and re-bid, if necessary.

In this week’s online column (posted Tuesday; check out the WinMag home page at www.winmag.com for the exact URL), I’ll tell you what I found when I explored some of the major auction sites, I’ll give you URLs where you can try online auctions for yourself, and I’ll ask for your opinions!

Are online auctions the Next Big Thing in e-commerce, or are they just a sideshow? Would you buy via e-auction? If you have made an online auction purchase, what did you get, and for how much? I’m just a sample of one---I’d love to hear some other viewpoints here!

Linux has always been freely distributed with its full source code. Nothing’s hidden, nothing’s proprietary, and anyone with reasonable programmatic skills can alter the code at will. If the alterations are good enough, they might even be adopted by the Linux community at large, becoming a formal part of future releases. This openness (plus the fact that it’s free) has been no small part of Linux’s success as an underground alternative to the mainstream OSes.

Earlier this year, Netscape tried to tap into the same magic by releasing the source code to its browser. It was a PR coup: "open" and "free" are powerful, positive words to have associated with your company.

Now, in light of Microsoft’s monopolistic status and its current legal trouble, some are calling for Microsoft to release the source code for Windows. In effect, to put Windows in the public domain or at least in the hands of an independent standards body.

Like Apple Pie and Motherhood, everyone likes the sound of "open source code." But who really needs it? Do you? Does your company? Does the industry?

For the most part, I think this is a false issue. I’ll tell you why, and I’d love to hear your opinions, in the week’s CMPnet column, starting Wednesday at http://www.langa.com/badlink.htm.

Thanks to all who sent along positive email---I really appreciate it.

Last week, I completed the cleanup of the mailing list, and a number of readers who got a removal confirmation wrote back to say they hadn’t asked to be dropped.

Here’s a fairly typical mail:

 Nothing offensive at all. 8-) I err on the side of caution because I hate spam and never want to deliver unwanted mail. Any address I've had trouble with gets treated as a "remove" request. If an address got munged in the great email meltdown, or your ISP has a temporary problem (it happens), or if anything generates a bounceback from your mailbox, I remove your address rather than risk resending unwanted mail.

If you ever think you’ve been dropped in error, just send along a subscribe email; you’ll be back that simply.

In any case, things seem OK again. A handful of readers---far less than 1%--- still got duplicates, but that’s probably about as good as it’s going to get. I doubt the web will ever allow perfection.

Anyway, thanks for your support.

See you next week!

Best,

Fred

(fred@langa.com)

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