Bill Gates' carnival

Hand it to Bill Gates. The canny chairman of Microsoft orchestrated one of the noisiest product introductions in Madison Avenue history with the debut this week of Windows 95, the new operating-system software for personal computers.

With lavish spending, Gates cranked up a mighty publicity Wurlitzer that featured everything from Microsoft-subsidized free copies of The Times of London to a blur of television appearances by the normally reclusive Microsoft chief.

It was not easy to tell whether the buyers who stormed into stores at midnight Wednesday, when Windows 95 first went on sale, were propelled simply by the international promotional blitz, or genuinely thought the next phase of the computer age was dawning.

The carnival atmosphere masked some serious questions about Windows 95 and Microsoft's increasing reach in the world of software and computer networks. Some computer buffs suggested that Gates was selling snake oil -- offering an operating system that includes improvements over the original Windows, but not enough to warrant the fuss.

If the first wave of Windows 95 buyers are disappointed, sales projections may have to come back down to Earth.

To run the new software at full capacity, many buyers with older computers will first face a chain reaction of other purchases needed to upgrade the computing power and memory of their machines. Microsoft, with a touch of Panglossian nonchalance, suggested the problem had been overstated by its competitors.

A more sensitive question, under study by the Justice Department, is whether Microsoft stands to gain an unfair competitive advantage in the burgeoning business of on-line services.

As it introduces Windows 95, Microsoft is also launching its own on-line service, the Microsoft Network, to compete with companies like America Online, Compuserve and Prodigy. For a monthly fee, they offer access to the Internet and a vast array of data bases and news and information sources.

Microsoft's double-barreled move raises legitimate concern because Windows 95 and the Microsoft Network are designed to work in tandem. With one click of a mouse or a single keystroke, users of Windows 95 can access the Microsoft Network, while it still requires separate software and a sequence of steps to use other networks.

Given the company's dominance in operating systems -- four out of every five computers have Microsoft systems -- the potential for funneling users directly to the Microsoft Network is clear.

Whatever happens, Bill Gates is likely to remain a very wealthy man.

-- The New York Times