Microsoft unclear about Windows Memphis to NT 5.0 Workstation migration

Attendees at the TechEd conference this week in Orlando are apparentlyconfused about Microsoft's strategy--or lack of it--for moving Windows 95users to Windows NT Workstation after the next versions of the OS shipnext year. Microsoft has no plans, for example, to make NTFS accessible toWindows 95 users and FAT32 available to Windows NT users. More importantly,Microsoft will not be providing an easy way to upgrade from Memphis to the Windows NT. The company came under a lot of criticism for doing thiswith NT 4.0 and was expected to correct the situation with the next version.

"What we won't be providing initially is, on first ship, the upgrade from Windows Memphis [to NT 5.0 Workstation]," said Microsoft program managerBernard Wong, who presented seminars on Memphis and NT 5.0 Workstation. "The reason is because we expect there won't be such an incredible amountof time lag between those products, so that somebody who has just finishedupgrading to Memphis is not going to be upgrading to Windows NT Workstation.