1994
Apple unveils its System 7.5 software. This bug fix solves many of the stability problems people had with System 7 releases. For the next few years, Apple promises a new operating system--Copland--but doesn't deliver anything until late 1997, when it turns out to be slower and less complete than expected. It's official--Apple is beginning to copy Microsoft.

IBM introduces a new version of OS/2 named after a console setting on board the USS Enterprise. OS/2 Warp is destined to sell more than 1 million copies in its first three months.

Microsoft ships three new operating systems: DOS 6.21, DOS 6.22, and NT 3.5. DOS 6.21 is an upgrade that removes disk compression from DOS 6.2 (Microsoft had been sued for patent infringement by Stac Electronics). When Microsoft settles with Stac (that is, pays them $83 million and buys control of the company), it releases DOS 6.22 complete with disk compression, and this marks the last MS-DOS. These details are far more interesting than any of the three operating system upgrades.

Microsoft gains a trademark on the name Windows. With this, the company decides to abandon version numbering and call "Chicago"--the next incarnation of the OS--Windows 95. A collective groan rises as everyone realizes that the damn system won't ship for another nine months.

Apple declares that it will license its operating system to system clone vendors.

1995
Microsoft launches a revolutionary new computing experience with decades of research behind it. The project manager--Melinda French--is destined to become Bill Gates's wife and mother to his daughter and heir. The product: Microsoft Bob. This "social interface" contains informative cartoon characters with distinct personalities who advise novice computerists on how to use the system. This idea reemerges in 1997 with Office 97's ever popular Officious--err, Office Assistants.

Microsoft releases a new version of Windows, Windows NT 3.5.1, and the tension builds as the public waits for more Windows announcements.

Sun introduces its Java development tool and a Unix Web browser that supports Java Virtual Machines. Using Virtual Machines in Web browsers, Sun's Java language promises the holy grail of programming: write once, run anywhere. Applications are what make operating systems worthwhile, so if an application like Java can run on any system, the system makers start to get nervous. In the case of Microsoft and Intel, only the paranoid survive.

Oh, and Microsoft launches Windows 95. It replaces File Manager with something called Explorer that can handle long filenames. Unfortunately, many Windows applications cannot, so it pays to stick with short monikers. The MS-DOS Executive is gone forever, as is the need for a separate installation of DOS. Over the next three years, Microsoft will release three updates to the operating system, calling them OSR1, OSR2, and OSR 2.5--because they can.