Today, Microsoft admitted that Windows 98 is in fact not an actual operating system, but rather an "illustration" of an actual operating system they claim exists in a top-secret Microsoft laboratory.

For years, Microsoft has portrayed Windows as an actual operating system, even after numerous critics pointed out severe technical shortcomings.

At a news conference, Microsoft spokesman Mark Murray stood with the company's general counsel and other top executives and acknowledged that Windows "was a hodge-podge of code patches and visual trickery designed to emulate an actual operating system we have running in our lab."

According to Murray, the actual operating system cannot be duplicated outside of laboratory conditions.

"Really, we have this wonderful OS running in our labs in Redmond," Murray explained. "Trouble is, we've only got it to run on this one machine. We had to ship something so we kind of patched together Windows from lots of different bits of code lying around to simulate this wonderful OS. But, Windows is not an actual operating system according the the technical definition of the term."

In related news, Microsoft admitted that a videotape offered into evidence this week at its antitrust trial was not of an actual test, but merely an ``illustration.''

"We're really innovators when it comes to trying to fake people out," added Murray. "You have no idea."

Posted on Sat 06 Feb 07:50:42 1999 PST
Written by mike popovic <editor@bedope.com> [ Author Info ]