| Compaq ends Digital era It was the end of an era as Compaq, which revolutionized the PC business, snapped up fading DEC, which had revolutionzed the minicomputer market, but which never seemed to get the hang of those newfangled desktop computers. Is Netscape giveaway genius or desperation?Imagine trying to give Web browsers away for free. RBOCs vow 1999 will be DSL’s yearWas it? Plucky Dell plots new server forayCould it do for servers what it had done for desktops? Will Netscape fill AOL e-comm bill?Netscape’s free-browser plan didn’t work; AOL snapped it up. Nortel buys Bay Networks for $9.1b MoreCatastrophic failure takes out all 145 of AT&T’s frame relay switchesNapster created by Northereastern University student Shawn Fanning. SBC acquires another BOC, this time Ameritech Ethern et turns 25 | 
