Midnight Madness for Windows 98

While Windows 98 isn't expected to be the runaway retail success thatWindows 95 was three years ago, stores across the globe will be opening atmidnight Thursday to let the early adopters get their hands on the new OSas soon as possible. When Windows 95 debuted, eager consumers rushed through store doors around the world at midnight, hoping to be among thefirst to get product. While Windows 98 isn't expected to generate as muchenthusiasm, there are still plenty of launch events planned.

CompUSA, for example, is hosting a "Late Night at CompUSA" event that willfeature $98 PC give-aways, and other prizes that will cost only 98 cents.Tandy is hosting block parties at its Computer City stores (which were recently sold to CompUSA, coincidentally).

Still, the biggest sales for Windows 98 will be those that are bundled withcomputers. Analyst estimates vary, but they all agree that Windows 98 willsell only a portion of the 19 million units Windows 95 did in its first sixmonths at retail