Featuring Bill Gates on a satellite hookup, the featured event at the Bonaventure Resort west of Fort Lauderdale attracted hundreds of visitors. Attention quickly waned during the mini-trade show of about a dozen manufacturers, vendors and consultants that followed. Refreshments were hot dogs, ice cream, popcorn, and soft drinks. A similar event took place that afternoon in Orlando, and at other cities around the country. But Windows95 was old news by then.
Newspaper columnists concur that it's a good program, but leaven their reviews with lots of buts.
In WSVN channel 7's recurring Cyber 7 feature and in many newspaper articles, consumers were warned that expensive hardware upgrades could be required to run Windows95. Retailers Thrilled Retailers, making the big sales, were thrilled. Other chain stores, notably Incredible Universe, had sponsored a heavy blitz of TV commercials about their special store hours from 10 PM until 1 AM, to take advantage of the Windows95 buying frenzy. Microsoft had expected about 8 million copies of Windows95 to be sold in the first week. Hostile Competition Microsoft's competition hasn't been taking things lying down, either.