98 was a pretty good operating system for it's time. Also, at that time, there weren't nearly as many viruses, and many computers weren't hooked up to the net. 98 was fairly stable until you started downloading stuff from the internet and installing it. I switched to Apple with OSX and the half basketball iMac. My daughter still uses that system, and it still works fine.
I think Microsoft is entering a very dangerous phase, and that they could be facing some rough sledding. Gates is a business genius. His leaving the company will hurt badly. Ballmer took over as CEO in 1998, when Win98 work was completed. Since then, the company, to me, seems to have lost focus. XP, as a concept, was already pretty well fleshed out with NT. Vista is the first OS that has been his from start to finish, and it seems to be having problems getting out the door.
Also, Microsoft never won out because of technical superiority, but through better business acumen. Ballmer is obviously smart, but I don't think he's anywhere near Gates in terms of figuring out the right move at the right time.
Thanks. It will be interesting to see what this "Vista" is all about. My personal oppinion is that windows 98 was a lot easier to navigate around the control pannel and such even if it was not as powerful. XP is very confusing when it comes to making an option change. Windows 98 actually seems safer on the net now then XP...Mostly because the hackers are all obsessed with XP. Most of the virus's comming out don't affect windows 98.