Although support for the older operating systems was due to end shortly, Microsoft has announced that it will be extended Microsoft has extended support for Windows 98, Windows 98 SE and Windows ME. The software giant has extended support for the operating systems until 30 June, 2006. During that time paid over-the-phone support will be available, and “critical” security issues will be reviewed and “appropriate steps” taken.
Windows 98 Gets Support Reprieve
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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A good thing, not so much for telephone support, but for patches on “critical” issues.
I still fix a lot of 98 and 95 computers for people that don’t want/care about anything newer. Strange that some people don’t see any need to “upgrade” when things work fine for them now…
Anyway, I would imagine that the virus writers, etc. will start moving on to 2000/xp and leave “old 98” alone.
Also someone on the net (Inquirer or someone..) had the opinion that it is a good way for MS to prevent some defection to Linux on the older hardware. Hmmm… Maybe not just a goodhearted gesture from Billy G.
Well this will be nice for some people. Im not jumping for joy. 95/98 arent that great, and im suprised anyone would go online with a 95 system. So outdated with all these new standards lol. The value of old hardware is in scrap parts and firewalls 😉 Though linux does wonders to old stuff, but I doubt Bill Gates did it because of that. Perhaps its just cause too many people were complaining.
BtW: Windows 98 was not one of those oses that “just worked” lol, I still dont understand why people want it.
“BtW: Windows 98 was not one of those oses that “just worked” lol, I still dont understand why people want it.”
The two main reasons I see are:
1. they don’t want to learn anything new (meaning XP) because it is of little importance to them. They don’t care a bit about what they are running as long as it is identical to what they ran back in 1998 when they got their first computer. (ie. they are lazy)
2. Money… They can’t afford a new computer. A lot of people are using thrift store throwaway computers that they can get cheap as heck, Along with the ease of piracy of 98/95. Maybe when we start seeing XP capable hardware in the average Goodwill store these people will move on..
Well whatever MS does I am ending support for Win9x beginning next year. I only have three customers that use it now. One will be pretty much moved over to XP and 2000 by then. Another will probably be out of business altogther a year from now due to an overwhelming competitor. The last one only uses Windows 98se to run a terminal emulator that connects to an offsite server (if you don’t actually use Windows 9x it is really solid, ha ha).
Most people who use computers that are running 98 view computers as appliances. Not many people upgrade their washer/refrigerator/stove every three years when the old one still cleans/stores/cooks just as good. Sure it may not have the new stain selector/adjustable temp zones/programmable features but it still works.
Not much reason for them too. I have people who say so and so said they needed a new computer, and I’ll ask them if their computer does what they want reasonably well. 8 times out of 10, it still does, so they keep it. Its like the commercial for Gateway plasma TV’s – Its the smart choice for people with more brains than money.
I met a couple few weeks ago. They use windows 98 and asked my advice about an issue. I know that they can afford a new computer, but these guys are not geeks so they don’t care about new stuff. I advised them to upgrade to XP, because I had my own problems with Windows ME and it is so unstable, the effort the time I spent to fix them just doesn’t worth. Fortunately I bought a new computer and now I have XP.
However, many puclic computers, like libraries, etc… do use Windows 95/98. For them this is a good thing.
Stop wasting resources on those dinosaurs! They were nice for their time but are completely irrelevant now and only dragging down the industry. Instead, lower the upgrade price for Windows XP Home Edition so that everyone could get up to speed with the rest of the world. Think about all the software and hardware companies out there who have to waist their resources on compatibility with Win9x. Concentrate on improving the XP, especially since it will probably remain you flagship OS for a couple of year.
I would, but my P120 80MB RAM laptop is too weak to play with W2k or XP so I run Win98SE on it, and it (W98) works great for what I use it for.
The laptop also works fine, so why should I get rid of it?
1.They run well on old hardware that I can pick up second hand,dirt cheap,and 95 has a fairly small footprint so it will run on really old stuff with small hard drives and little memory.You really need a P-IV or Athelon system to get any real performance out of XP.
2.Just about any Windoze app I want or need will run on these OS’s
3.They interact well with most popular alt-OS’s,Especially my favorite”Dinosaur OS” BeOS which will not write to the NTFS based windows distros,It’s probabally no accident that the newer versions of Windoze lack this transparency.So these versions make a multi-boot system much easier to manage.
4.Win95 does DOS apps much better than the newer versions and I still have a lot of DOS based games and such.
5.I already own ’em and they are bought and paid for.
In conclusion i will add that the lack of support is only an issue to me in respect to new drivers being written for these OS’s ,I don’t really use them for stuff where I’m concerned about viruses,that’s why I have BeOS and Linux running here.It’s nice to be able to pick up an old laptop or desktop box on Ebay for less than $50 and slap a copy of 98 or 95 on it and have a usable computer,Load ’em full of old games and M$ BOB and give ’em to a small child,and if BeOS will run on them too that’s a REAL bonus!!!
If you are happy with your laptop and Win98SE setup then of course you shouldn’t replace it. But it’s not like by not supporting Win9x anymore MS comes to your house and takes it away from you. You can still use it. And since your hardware is about 8-10 years old then you probably won’t need any new drivers either. You can probably happily continue using your setup exactly the way it is. So, still there is no strong reasons for MS (or other companies) to continue actively supporting Win9x.
Money… They can’t afford a new computer. A lot of people are using thrift store throwaway computers that they can get cheap as heck, Along with the ease of piracy of 98/95. Maybe when we start seeing XP capable hardware in the average Goodwill store these people will move on..
XP runs usably on pretty much any Pentium 2 class machine and up, as long as you have enough RAM. They’ve been selling them for a while.
Most of the aftermarket mainboards support 98/Me. The EULA ties one license to a specific box with the authorization sticker placed on the backside OEM. If MS were to stop selling and/or “supporting” the software, there would be no grounds for EULA enforcement and users could then install the software on new or used mainboards avoiding the crappy PC makers (HP,Dell) and the license trap. If MS stops selling the software, how can they expect you to buy a new license for that new box you just built? They can’t rightfully expect you to buy an XP license when you currently use 98/Me.
I run win2000 on a 2000+ computer but still have win98.
Even if win98 isn’t as secure as win2000, it is really faster.
Win98 works better than win2000/XP when I only use one software per session. Also my win98 is designed to do video capture because there are some problems using vfw on win2000.
(1) Windows 95 OSR2 runs very fast on the hardware on my home LAN (six PPro/200 boxes with between 64 and 192MB of RAM), and it still runs most of the games I want to play (things like Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 still work well on my Voodoo2 systems). Newer games require more hardware than I have, anyway, so a software upgrade isn’t going to do much.
(2) Windows 95 OSR2 already has FAT32 support, and Windows 98 and ME weren’t any more stable than OSR2 in my experience, so there was very little incentive to upgrade from OSR2 to those Windows variants.
(3) Support for Windows 95 OSR2 was dropped just before the Windows XP release, and OSR2 was excluded from being eligible for the “upgrade” version of Windows XP (you have to have 98 or later in order to legally obtain the upgrade).
That means that the cost to upgrade an OSR2 license to XP is *significantly* higher than the cost to upgrade a 98 license. There’s no way I’m going to pay over $1000 to upgrade my LAN (even though I’d like to)!!
I’ve always done my normal desktop stuff under OS/2, and I’ve been slowly moving to Linux here and there (and I use Linux with Samba on my fileservers), but Windows is still the game platform of choice here. As long as upgrading the software remains so danged expensive, I really can’t see those boxes running any other flavor of Windows, and I suspect those PCs will be running on my LAN for quite some time to come. They *are* 686-class boxes, after all…
My brother has 98 on his new machine I have XP on my old machine.
XP is more unstable, why? Because I mess around to much with the computer.
98 is stable, why? Because my brother won’t let me touch his computer
No really he never installs anything new it stays the same all the time, maybe that is why it is stable. He may sometimes upgrade DirectX or graphics drivers, but only if the game requires him to do so.
I think I need a new HDD to mess around with, keep another HDD stable for that all important school work
” Anyway, I would imagine that the virus writers, etc. will start moving on to 2000/xp and leave “old 98″ alone. ”
They already have, Blaster and SoBig were 2000/XP only
MS could release Longhorn and once everyone who would pay for an upgrade has done so they could release XP for free to existing Win98/95 users. Make a special version which only works by upgrading existing 95/98 installs. Send ’em out and let people upgrade. Surely by doing this they can morally drop 98 support like a dirty rag and claim everyone has no reason not to be running 2k or better (2k users not getting a free upgrade).
Stay with me now, this would stop lots of users considering a non-MS OS and also drop MS’s support costs considerably. Now they only have to support 2k and better and they have also won a moral victory by giving their users a free upgrade. Let’s see Linux compete with that.
Seriously, in the 5 minutes I’ve been toying with this idea I don’t see why this couldn’t/wouldn’t work for them apart from users whose software is too old to run XP. They don’t need to give offical support but use the exisiting FAQs and Knowledge Base (This would only work for home users, not commerical).
MS is concerned that corporate users aren’t upgrading to XP. They will support win98 until Longhorn arrives. I assume they will then cease to support win2k. Once Longhorn SP1 arrives XP support will probably be dropped.
This is to prevent Win98 corporates to switch to Linux on old but usuable hardware.
I never understood software companies no longer offering support for 5 year old products. I mean, I understand the people who want latest and greatest, but I understand that “good enough is sometimes good enough.”
Could you imagine if Ford or Nissan just up and stopped repairing/selling parts for their 1995 line of cars and trucks?
There would be outrage. Why is it ok for a mega-corp like M$ to do so with their software?
They look at the user as a peon. To hell with them. Check out litepc.com and see how to rip MSIE from your win9x/2k/xp and run mozilla or whatever else you like instead. Even change shells (XP shell needs 256MB RAM!!!!). Replace it with win95 shell and run like snot!
Oh well. Run whatever OS you like. 95/98 were best for many dos games and emulators.
For one, a car is a much bigger expense than a PC.
Two, the only equivelant you can draw between the two industries in this area would be for recalling. A recall is the same thing as Microsoft issuing a patch, after awhile, even if there is a serious issue with a certain car, they will not issue a recall, same goes with software.
The OS is already 6 years old and built on a retired architecture. That is more than enough time to support a software product. Not to mention the fact that they would still have the knowledge base articles and such online, which are always very helpful.
” For one, a car is a much bigger expense than a PC.
Two, the only equivelant you can draw between the two industries in this area would be for recalling. A recall is the same thing as Microsoft issuing a patch, after awhile, even if there is a serious issue with a certain car, they will not issue a recall, same goes with software.
The OS is already 6 years old and built on a retired architecture. That is more than enough time to support a software product. Not to mention the fact that they would still have the knowledge base articles and such online, which are always very helpful. ”
One thing I told someone earlier this week was this, Should Ford continue to make parts for the Model T because a thousand people still have that car? I dont criticize Microsoft for it, in fact I thought EOL for 98 was the right thing for MS to do. Im going to stick with Microsoft and I will continue to support my few customers with Win 98 for the duration of Microsofts extention.
it mainly benefits m$ for legal reasons.also,tries to keep some of their “customers” who received their computer with
m$ pre-installed.
any recent linux distribution is able to give better
performance and application choices than win98 on these
older hardware systems.
yes , it is time to use that scratched-up win98 cd
for a beer coaster.
I’ve been in the computer support business for many years and I continue to see arrogance displayed by technicians such as in this forum. Guys, try to understand that to most people a computer is just a tool – NOT a lifestyle. As computer techs/IT professionals we start to think that EVERYONE should hold the same degree of interest in computers that we do and that they are “stupid” or “lazy” for not immediately upgrading to a new OS or system. Give me a break. If your old Dodge Dart still drives you reliably back and forth to work and it’s paid off – why the heck would you go out and buy a shiny new car?? And think about it…if all of the “stupid” and “lazy” people bought new computers with every new OS — what the heck would WE do for jobs???