Re: Repost: Need feedback on Windows 9x vs. 95/98

[Yvonne DeGraw <yvonne -at- SILCOM -dot- COM>]

Beth Kane wrote:
>     We're developing products that will work on both Windows 95 and
>     Windows 98 (as well as Windows NT 4.0). Our developers have told us
>     they'd like us to refer to the two "nineties" operating systems
>     together as Windows 9x.

It depends on your audience. (Doesn't everything?)

Using 9x for 95/98 would be familiar to say programmers who work with
various CPU chips. I do some programming tools documentation and the
client's docs commonly refer to a family of chips using the x. For example,
TMS320C6x, includes TMS320C62 and TMS320C67. The convention your developers
suggested would make sense to this audience.

I wouldn't use it for a non-programmer/non-sysadmin audience however. I'd go
with "Windows 95/98" and "Windows 95 and Windows 98" on first reference.

Believe it or not, many people who use Windows 95 don't even know what
operating system they are using. To them, it's just whatever came with the
computer. I had to ask my parents and my sister whether there was a "Start"
menu in the corner to find out what OS they were running.
Yvonne DeGraw, Technical Services     o Technical Writing
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