Microsoft to DROP Windows 98 - Dec 15

Postby **Fsiphskilm** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 5:33 pm

Yes it's true folks

Postby **Mithrandir** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 5:39 pm

... or if you just hate the idea of going to either of them...

Yeah, it's actually been pretty much a done deal for a while. There isn't any support for it anymore, even if you buy it.

Postby **shooraijin** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 5:52 pm

Which sucks; 98SE is the only version of Windows I can stand. 2000 and XP are too slow, 95 is buggy, and ME is slow, buggy and restrictive.

Postby **madphilb** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 7:21 pm

Actuallly they mapped this out several years ago... and it's not the sale thing that's being dropped....

The way this works is that they've been trying to "ween" (I think that's the right word) us off the older OSes... so they started by no longer doing phone support for Win95, then they stopped doing any updates that supported it, finally they where supposed to have taken all the Win95 related files off their systems (so you could no longer get the updates from them at all). Each version of the OS was supposed to go through this, with the different phases overlapping (much like a "round" in music).

MS stopped selling 98 a long time ago, though you can still find (and will still be able to find) copies around (check eBay, my sister got a copy of 95 or 98 from there not too long ago).

What this does mean (for those who still don't have XP) is that in the next year or two they will cut ME from their list of supported OSes... eventually the idea is to have everyone using whatever OS they have when they go with the pay-to-play system (assuming they ever get away with that).

I for one will continue to use 98, and I'll go so far as to transfer it to a new system if need be (which will be kinda tricky with my current setup, since I only got a restore CD from eMachines, but I can work around it, assuming I don't buy a new copy from somewhere).

Be warned, however, that MS will still be willing to sue the pants off you if you pirate their software, even after they phase it out completely.... as they did with a ministry who took old systems and rebuilt them for very poor children and was installing Win95 on it (the systems where that old).

I forget what they finally agreed on, but I think after the bad press MS caved in and worked something out with the group, but I don't think they let them off free.

This is one of the reasons why I will eventually get rid of MS and go with Linux as my primary OS (with a copy of something like 98se sitting in the background as an alternate boot).

Postby **Link Antilles** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 2:08 pm

I used to be reluctant to get XP, I was the die hard Win 98SE person. Well, the times change and the sands have shifted. Since I got my new computer, I've never looked back to the old dayz, yet I might go grab a copy of 98SE if I build another computer. Why canâ€™t they just dump ME.

Postby **ShiroiHikari** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 2:59 pm

My computer came with XP. 98 was okay but it was always doing something dumb. XP is just bloody slow. -_-;

I guess what it all boils down to is Microsoft = evil, eh?

Postby **Locke** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 6:13 pm

<----- microsoft (or am i being too harsh?)

Postby **Link Antilles** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 6:19 pm

kenshin1278 wrote::evil:<----- microsoft (or am i being too harsh?)

Naw, evilness is expected with a monopoly like M$. Isn't the government doing something about splitting them or something?

Postby **btboy500** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 7:15 pm

madphilb wrote:This is one of the reasons why I will eventually get rid of MS and go with Linux as my primary OS (with a copy of something like 98se sitting in the background as an alternate boot).

One can never really go wrong with using Linux. I run dual-boot of Windows98(the only tolerable Windows OS) with Slackware 9.0. You can install it on as many computers as you want, you can even change the code and still call it linux. Of course, Windows isn't open source.

Postby **Shao Feng-Li** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 11:33 am

kenshin1278 wrote::evil:<----- microsoft (or am i being too harsh?)

how is microsoft evil? it bill gates vcan do waht eever he wants with it after all...he created it...i fpeople dont like it they can go invet their own stuff or use something else.... i dont find microsoft evil at all (Its called free market)

Postby **Heaven's Cloud** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 11:56 am

I better upgrade...

Postby **Fsiphskilm** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 1:19 pm

DANG!!!

Postby **shooraijin** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 1:32 pm

> i dont find microsoft evil at all (Its called free market)

This would be true if Microsoft's market share had more parity with other operating system manufacturers, but in this case, a 95%+ market saturation in the computer market is virtually total. With the relative difficulty of finding technical, hardware and software support for other platforms (PC software is sold everywhere; Linux, Mac, BSD, etc., much harder to find by comparison), Microsoft owns the market, and can do anything they want with it. That's not a market with competitive forces, IMHO (the same thing applied to the old IBM ages and ages ago, although the new IBM has made many good moves and even has a surprisingly hacker-friendly mentality which has won them many friends in the open source community).

Postby **Fsiphskilm** » Sun Dec 14, 2003 11:47 am

I don't like the idea

Postby **TheMelodyMaker** » Sun Dec 14, 2003 7:23 pm

Does anyone know if Microsoft will still at least provide some support for Windows 98 through Windows Update? (If they don't, it's a good thing I've backed up all their updates for it on CD... just in case I ever have to reinstall it after it's discontinued.)

Postby **Technomancer** » Sun Dec 14, 2003 7:28 pm

Link Antilles wrote:Naw, evilness is expected with a monopoly like M$. Isn't the government doing something about splitting them or something?

Nah, a large supply of bribes, er.. campaign contributions took care of their problems.

Postby **madphilb** » Sun Dec 14, 2003 8:00 pm

Acutally, I was reading in one of the news articls on MyYahoo page that what they are dropping tomorrow is just phone support... that means it'll be another year or two before they remove all support from the web.

Postby **TheMelodyMaker** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 9:55 am

That's good... I still use Windows 98 for my web server and need to keep it updated. (And I checked Windows Update on it this morning and all is still normal.)

Postby **Fsiphskilm** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 8:56 pm

Huh? so what's the deal with servers

Postby **madphilb** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 6:06 am

TheMelodyMaker wrote:That's good... I still use Windows 98 for my web server and need to keep it updated. (And I checked Windows Update on it this morning and all is still normal.)

Time to upgrade to Linux/Apache

Postby **Fsiphskilm** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 5:24 pm

dang girl..

Postby **madphilb** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 8:04 pm

You can find copies from existing distribution channels, no new copies will be made available, and I'm sure Gates had any existing copies in their inventory destroyed.

My sister got her copy of Win95 on eBay (came with a memory module that most likely doesn't work... part of some stupid rule/law that you can't sell the OS without hardware).

Postby **TheMelodyMaker** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 9:29 pm

[quote="madphilb"]Time to upgrade to Linux/Apache ]

You'll be glad to know that I've been using Apache from the start. ^_^

Postby **The Silence** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 10:56 pm

And red hat switched to enterprise only. such a fallen world we live in T_T

Postby **shooraijin** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 3:44 am

That's why beautiful people use NetBSD. Once my Dreamcast Broadband Adapter arrives, I'll be running my spare DC as a Unix server! w00t!

http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/dreamcast/

"Of course it runs NetBSD."

Postby **Mithrandir** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 8:56 am

Only shooby would consider buying an old dreamcast to use as a webserver.

Postby **The Silence** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 9:34 am

I still use my old dreamcast, as like, a videogame platform....

Postby **shooraijin** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 12:41 pm

> Only shooby would consider buying an old dreamcast to use as a webserver.

I didn't buy it to do that, specifically, I just bought it to have a spare. But since it's just sitting around doing nothing ... :evil:

Microsoft to DROP Windows 98 - Dec 15

Microsoft to DROP Windows 98 - Dec 15

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