President George Bush committed a little diplomatic faux pas by vomiting over the Japanese prime minister. Euro Disney opened in France, and Leona Helmsley, a billionaire from another industry, was jailed for tax evasion. Meanwhile, Windows was ready to really start rolling.

	What happened to Next? Next spawned an IDG magazine called NextWorld and a supplement to the Ziff-Davis pub MacWeek, called (predictably) NextWeek. These bizarre double entendres are its main legacy.
	What happened to OS/2 Warp? Despite a one-year lead on Windows 95, OS/2 Warp didn't capture the public imagination.

1992
Microsoft runs its first television ads, themed "making it easier." The featured product? Windows 3.1. This version of the program fixes many bugs and makes the File Manager work fast enough to use for such advanced tasks as managing files. And for those with multimedia systems, it includes a groovy new feature: sound effects. When you start up Windows, it sings, "Ta-daaa" at you; when you quit, it plays a hackneyed bell clanging sound called chimes.wav. And when you want to create a filename, you have to think of one that fits in eight characters with a three-character extension--because this thing still runs on top of DOS.

Windows NT.

Sun releases Solaris, a graphical version of its operating system. Solaris runs on top of Sun's own SPARC chip and Intel's chips. It's graphical and windowing, but it doesn't catch on in the PC world.

In an attempt to bring networking to Windows, Microsoft releases Windows for Workgroups 3.1. WFW 3.1 is sold separately from Windows until Windows 95 incorporates it. This system comes bundled with two Ethernet cards and cabling, and also packs in Microsoft Mail, networking features, and a startling number of bugs.

At this stage, Microsoft is actively marketing three versions of Windows: Windows NT, WFW 3.1, and Windows 3.1. WFW is so buggy that it's very quickly upgraded to 3.11.

President George Bush awards Bill Gates the National Medal of Technology.

1993
Apple Computer ships its 10 millionth Macintosh--and Microsoft announces it has 25 million licensed Windows users.

Next ships a version of its graphical, windowing NextStep operating system to run on Intel-based PCs. It doesn't catch on.

In May, IBM releases OS/2 2.1. Microsoft one-ups them by launching NT 3.1.

Intel introduces its next generation of microprocessor. Intel hits upon a new name for its chip line: the Pentium. Sounding like a satanic symbol doesn't have that many downsides, until the next generation of chips comes along. Avoiding another Latin-based derivative (we don't think Sexium will make the cut), they go for Pentium Pro and Pentium II. This opens the floodgates for a slew of bizarre-sounding chip names: Celeron, a half-rhyme for sell-a-thon (wishful thinking, as it turns out); Xeon, a new element; and Katmai, an exotic drink in an overpriced cocktail lounge.

Compaq, Intel, Microsoft, and BIOS makers Phoenix Technologies begin hammering out a spec for Plug and Play (PnP) for Intel-based PCs. In so doing, they're bringing the diverse Intel-based computing world in line with the Apple/Lisa/Alto/Englebart vision.

Apple's 63-month legal wrangle with Microsoft and HP over the look and feel of Windows and NewWave ends with Apple's suit being thrown out of court. Early alpha versions of the next version of Windows (codename Chicago) are being shown in the form of screen shots in magazines. They feature a trash-canlike Recycle Bin containing deleted files.

The World Wide Web opens up with the release of a free browser called Mosaic--developed by a team of undergraduates, including a fellow with a name few people spell properly until the late 1990s. Marc Andreessen goes on to take his student project to commercial realms in a company called Netscape. Originally dubbing his browser Mozilla, Andreessen bows to marketing and goes with Navigator. But most people just call it Netscape--especially after Microsoft gets wise to the browser market in 1995 with a little number called Internet Explorer.