Thursday the 25th of June saw the launch of Windows 98, Microsoft's evolutionary development of its desktop operating system and one that is aimed more at consumer users than businesses. The latter should, apparently, be looking to Windows NT 4.0 and the imminent (sort of) Windows NT 5.0 for their computing needs. Any launch of this magnitude requires a party, something that Microsoft and its PR company organised in what appeared to be a couple of old warehouses in London's fashionable Parsons Green. We were there of course, along with ITN and the BBC, who fortunately sloped off home before the drink overcame some of the less mature of the assembled hacks.

There were games to play, based on Old Brucie's Generation Game, such as making a pot, mixing a cocktail, doing something odd with old CDROMs, and attempting to kick a football harder than the Gazza look-alike (actually, he could have been the real thing. You never know. He's probably got quite a bit of spare time on his hands now). Your loyal reporter, too old and cynical for such things, spent the evening close to the bar and the buffet, playing table football with some like-minded colleagues and watching the proceedings with a mixture of amusement and bafflement.

At the stroke of midnight on the same evening, computer retail stores all across America - and some in this country - opened their doors to hordes of sad individuals in pony-tails and open-toed sandals, so that they could buy the latest upgrade to their operating system. Why couldn't they wait another 9 hours or so, instead of wasting the early hours of the morning radically over-hauling their PCs? Perhaps that's one of evolution's great secrets. Incidentally, some UK stores were offering RAM at half-price when bought with a copy of Windows 98. Do they know something we don't?

You'll notice that a review of Windows 98 is currently conspicuous by its absence on this site, despite the fact that Microsoft was giving away shrink-wrapped copies on the night like they were sweeties. We haven't, unlike virtually all of the mainstream PC press, reviewed late beta versions of this new operating system, not even the supposed 'final code' that Microsoft's PR company was distributing a few weeks ago. Because we haven't forgotten the launch version of Windows 95, which differed considerably from its late betas in both functionality and stability. That made quite a few magazines look more than a bit silly, as they confidently talked about features (and, indeed, bugs) that the public were never to see.

So don't believe the hype. We've got a couple of copies of Bill Gates' latest pride and joy, and we've already installed them and started the evaluation process. In a few days' time, we'll post our review in the 'PC Software Reviews' section of this site. And we promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.