Rebirth as an American Tycoon

[Chapter 818: The Next-Gen Operating System]

"Is this Bill Gates' trump card?" Upon arriving back in Los Angeles, William White encountered that familiar Windows interface.

He thought Bill was pushing his luck a bit. William had grown tired of the current Windows 3.X version. To him, only the later Windows 95 truly represented a graphical user interface. A system reliant on DOS was, at best, a half-finished project.

"Yeah. Sir, this Windows NT really impresses. If it weren't for the surge in ICQ users, I bet he would've tried to delay the launch even longer."

"Promise him, Filson, it is impressive, but this beta version has too many issues. It's blue-screened twice already while we've been talking. If I had to guess, there won't be any chance for success this year."

"Yeah, Bill has been a bit frantic. He wants to establish Microsoft's dominant position and can't afford to stall."

William chuckled to himself. It was hard to predict what ICQ might turn into, given how the IT landscape had changed so drastically.

Things were uncertain with Microsoft, but right now, the company was far more powerful than it had ever been in history. So, buying in at any moment would be reasonable; exchanging shares with any company at this point wouldn't be a loss.

"Filson, Bill Gates might regret this decision later. This operating system is a genuine piece of work. Those earlier versions were merely simple imitations.

By the way, Tom, let's get moving. This operating system is definitely going to be released next year."

"Um, sir, I've already started preparing for it. So, there won't ever be a 16-bit version again?"

"Of course not. Even though there will be some compatibility, it will never be mainstream. Tom, I'm not asking you to replace 16-bit with 32-bit; I need a complete upgrade. Games, ICQ, firewalls, graphics drivers, everything -- start from scratch."

Tom the Fat Cat looked taken aback, and even Filson seemed puzzled. The boss had shown a remarkable level of determination recently.

They had no way of knowing that, if one looked closely, Win95 was indeed a groundbreaking operating system. The subsequent Win98 release was merely a set of enhancements or patches.

It wasn't just other software companies who faced difficulty; even Microsoft itself would struggle. If not for the equally formidable Windows XP, the Win95 series could have remained a stubborn feature for many years to come.

However, opportunities for significant gain would soon vanish. Once Win95 launched, other competitors would have little to no chance to catch up.

"Uh, sir, this is going to require a massive workload. By the way, should we support Apple's system?"

"No need; they're done for. There won't be any more chances for them. We need to focus entirely on Microsoft. As long as no other competitors emerge, the operating system landscape is set."

Not that no one saw the market potential, but the garage companies just couldn't produce something on that level. A Win95 required at least five thousand people to create. With just a few exceptions, no one could even dream of attempting it.

...

Sure, some remained skeptical, like the one sitting across the table at that moment.

"Larry, William White is insane. How can he see anything of value in that trash system? Damn it, I shouldn't have gotten into hardware."

Larry Ellison dismissed the remarks. No matter how good Apple's system might be, it was still a closed platform.

"Steve, stop it. You should know the value of this prototype very clearly. Alright, alright, don't look at me like that, yes, it still needs a ton of patches. But isn't it slated for a release next year?"

"Bill's just a hack; he doesn't even understand why he needs to do things that way; he just piles stuff together. Good grief, how massive is this operating system? Does it really need a hundred floppy disks?"

Larry gave him a contemptuous look. If he had a feud with Bill, that was one thing, but he shouldn't be spouting nonsense. Everyone had moved on to optical drives. Who still used floppy disks anymore?

"Okay, okay, optical drives are nice, but what about hard drives? Is there enough space?"

"Ahem, buddy, I hate to break it to you, but Seagate has new toys, and soon hard drives over 2GB will be the norm. I heard the next-gen PlayStation will be packing a 2GB hard drive and a DVD-ROM."

"Wow, that crazy boss of yours -- I'm at a loss for words. By the way, isn't he planning to go to Mars?"

...

William White suddenly felt that his ears were burning and shook his head to cast aside the chaotic thoughts.

Now was not the time to be waffling about. Even if he rolled out Win98 now, he still wouldn't measure up to Microsoft.

His White system was big enough that no one would tolerate its continued development without consequence. At this rate, would anyone else even have a chance to survive?

He hoped these folks would take a hint and get out of his way. They would have to deal with the fact that Steve Jobs was still around, after all.

Oh boy, that stubborn guy must be drawing circles to curse Bill, right? Ha, such a petty character!

William would have never guessed that Steve Jobs was indeed drawing circles, but it was William whose shortcomings were being lamented.

In Steve Jobs's eyes, the White system was fully capable of handling an operating system. He simply couldn't understand why someone would waste their time on rockets when they could be developing software.

"Nastassja, running around with your big belly is just crazy. Don't you realize how hard I'm working?"

"Pfft, the doctor said I'm healthy; it's certainly somebody else who's not."

William White couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Sure, if it's so bad, you wouldn't keep nagging. I'm just saying."

"Let me check it."

Well, a weary William White definitely wouldn't admit to any slander. But alas, with the baby on the way, he was forced to let her have her way.

...

After a long while, William finally straightened his clothes and frowned, "Look, you've gotten too excited. It's very uncomfortable to be neither up nor down."

"Huh, what, isn't it useful? Gee, there is so much."

William didn't wish to discuss the awkward topic any further and had to force a change of subject.

"Anyway, darling, what do they think of me?"

"You've gone mad! Just like this, hahaha, another rumor about Howard Hughes is out there."

William scoffed, clearly unimpressed. "I can't compete with him -- he had hundreds of Hollywood stars. Ugh, he's practically a stud horse."

"Hehe, some people are only friends, and it's not as depraved as you think."

"Come on, are you kidding me? Does Hollywood even have that kind of stuff? I for one don't believe it."

At this point, Nastassja found it difficult to argue. After all, she could be seen as a victim too. It just so happened that her efforts still had some value.

It was already quite a feat to have slept her way up to the West Hollywood scene. Who could guess how many did that?

As for her? It was not easy to be nominated for an Oscar. If there was any explanation, this was it.

Why was the fat guy Harvey got arrested? The reason was simple -- efforts didn't match results. Or rather, he had taken the free lunch. Those who disrupted the rules of the game usually didn't end up well; it was as simple as that.

*****

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