Стоит ли отправиться из Чикаго в Мемфис уже сейчас?
Larry Seltzer
Most people get their new versions of Windows by buying new computers. But if your PC upgrade cycle is not in sync with Microsoft's OS development cycle, you'll be wondering whether you should upgrade to Memphis before you get a new computer sometime in 1998 or beyond. Your decision will hinge on whether you need more from Memphis than what the IE 4.0 portion already delivers for free.
So if a better browser, Active Desktop, improved clients for mail and news, and integration of the Web metaphor with your desktop and hard disk already do it for you, then Memphis, no matter the cost, is probably not worthwhile for now.
If the non-IE 4.0 features of Memphis strike a chord for you, though, you'll still need to weigh them against the real pain of an OS upgrade. Arguably, Memphis contains no one killer feature beyond what IE 4.0 offers. Yet its smaller enhancements are numerous and worth considering, especially if your system has the original Windows 95 without many of its bug fixes.
One hot button for you may be support for new hardware, of which Memphis has plenty out of the box. If you plan on using some of the new Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP), DVD, FireWire (IEEE 1394) or USB devices, an ACPI-compliant notebook, or even multiple monitors, you'll see better driver support in Memphis. Analogous enhancements are available in the networking client, and although that support is also available as a patch to Windows 95, integration in the OS is always preferable.
Have you been waiting for FAT32? It's been in Windows 95 since OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2), but Memphis is the first version to provide a user conversion to this format. For some users, FAT32's potential benefits--being able to take advantage of Microsoft's Disk Defragmenter Optimization Wizard effectively and its significant hard disk space savings--are worth the upgrade. But the effectiveness of these features will vary for different users depending on the programs on their systems and whether a given hard disk is full of large files or small files.
The Windows 95-to-Memphis upgrade process itself is not always easy. We've tried it out on several systems. It went well on some of them, miserably on others. Beta testers should be prepared for installation difficulties.
The bottom line: Take Microsoft at its word when it recommends that you back up your system first. And before you begin, make sure you really need more than just the browser and a new desktop interface.
