I remember when it launched. I had a 486DX-2 at the time and no compelling reason to upgrade. Plus, I was 11 and that was a lot of cash to shell out! Especially after having to pay my parents back for $200 in long distance charges after spending quite a few hours dialed into a Chicago exchange to play Doom at 9600bps, whoops!
That actually reminds me... Not long after, my uncle, who worked for the telco, left me his laptop to fix one weekend. I snagged the numbers and passwords for a few businesses with local numbers (one of which was the food giant Smithfield Foods). At night I would dial into their PBX system, have it dial out to the long distance BBS, then I'd hang up and have it dial me back and it would merge the two calls. I did it a few times, didn't get caught and then got bolder and started calling *really* long distance. I played Doom with people in Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa and made some great friends, some of which I actually met or still talk to today.
My free long distance lasted for about 5 years, until 2000 when the last PBX I had access codes for was replaced. At that point I had access to the Internet anyway, so it didn't matter much. It was still nice for voice calls though... (Oh man, when I was 15 I called this girl in Ireland that I'd met in a chat room. Mannnn, that accent and the dirty things she said in it...)
I don't know what any this has to do with Windows 95...
Sent from my Tablet