From today, Microsoft will no longer issue security updates or provide support for Windows 98 and Windows ME, which could lead users to trying alternative operating systems such as Linux. Eight years after launching Windows 98, Microsoft will finally wash its hands of updating and plugging security gaps in its ageing operating system. The software giant originally planned to pull the plug in January 2004 but decided to extend support because of the increasing threat from Linux.
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Member since:2006-03-12
Member since:2006-05-05
ingraham wrote this bizarre statement:
"Someone using Windows 98 in 2006 is absolutely, positively NEVER going to use Linux. I'd be shocked if any remaining Windows 98 users had HEARD of Linux."
Here's another shock for you:
I use both Linux and Windoze 98 (SE). Linux has been my main home OS for the last 4 years. W98SE is mainly used for software that's unavailable for Linux, or devices that lack drivers. My computers are rather old, and I see no benefit "upgrading" them with an OS that's slow as molasses and costs more than the computer is worth.
I don't even use any antivirus on the W98 box, and I've never experienced a virus attack. But my ADSL modem has a built-in firewall, I don't use Internet Explorer (except a on few sites where Opera won't work, like Microsoft Update), and I read my e-mail on the Linux box.
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:
2006-05-20
Someone using Windows 98 in 2006 is absolutely, positively NEVER going to use Linux. I'd be shocked if any remaining Windows 98 users had HEARD of Linux. They clearly don't even have a nephew to program their VCR clocks for them, or they would have LONG since been given something else.
As for Corporate America, the standard replacement cycle for PCs is 3 to 5 years. Assuming anything purchased since 2000 had Win2K, the last of the 98 machines should have been gone by 2003. A company still stringing along Win98 machines at this point is equally incapable of installing (or pronoucing) Linux.