Why didn Microsoft release OSR2 for retail sale?
This is a contentious issue, and speculation abounds. My current opinion is the following: Microsoft really isn’t sure that the enhancements in OSR2 (especially FAT32) will work on every system in existence. So, they released it only to OEMs, so that the OEMs have to do the work of figuring out if it works on the systems they sell (especially since the OEM has to supply tech support for OSR2, not Microsoft). Also, in this way, OSR2 only appears on new systems, thus eliminating having to deal with upgrading & legacy problems. Microsoft hopes to identify problems with new elements in OSR2 in this way, while simultaneously developing “Memphis,” the next retail version of Windows, which presumably will include FAT32 and a means to easily upgrade from older versions of Windows & FAT16. Memphis is currently due for retail release in 1Q 1998. I offer the information in this FAQ mainly because I got rather angry with Microsoft’s intent to restrict the availbility of OSR2, and so I decided to t
