Windows 98 gets support reprieve

ZDNet UK ^ | January 12, 2004

[antiRepublicrat]

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.

Support for the Windows 98 family of operating systems was scheduled to end on Friday, with support for Windows ME due to expire in December this year.

"Microsoft made this decision to assist our customers worldwide who are still dependent upon these operating systems and to provide Microsoft more time to communicate its product lifecycle support guidelines in a handful of markets -- particularly smaller and emerging markets," said Microsoft Australia's senior Windows desktop product marketing manager, Danny Beck.

The support expiration dates for all three of the older operating systems was made the same in the interests of clarity, he said.

"We made the decision to also lengthen support for Windows 98 and Windows ME customers through the same date in order to provide a clear and consistent date for support conclusion for all of these older products," Beck explained.

"Microsoft also wanted to bring Windows 98 SE into compliance with the company's current lifecycle policy for new products, which provides for support for seven years instead of the original four," he added.

[antiRepublicrat]

Considering the number of 98 boxes still out there running, this was a very good move for Microsoft. Not just for those people still running 98, but for the rest of us who wouldn't like to see millions of unpatched (and never to be patched) potential DDOS drones out there.

[Support Free Republic]

Are we there yet?

[Consort]

Windows 98 is forever: It never shuts down.

[Hodar]

"Microsoft also wanted to bring Windows 98 SE into compliance with the company's current lifecycle policy for new products, which provides for support for seven years instead of the original four," he added.

And MS is going to eat the costs associated with this. As an engineer who has worked in this field for a substancial amount of time, I can assure you the costs of continued support are not inconsequential. For a 'benevolent monopoly', this is a very good thing. Can you think of any other industry that voluntarily does something like this? Granted, when MS does bad or illegal things, they should be punished. Likewise, when they do something benevolent, it should at least be recognized.

[Paleo Conservative]

Considering the number of 98 boxes still out there running, this was a very good move for Microsoft.

I seriously doubt many of those Win98 boxes have enough horse power to be worth upgrading to Windows 2000 Or Windows XP.

[Hodar]

Win98 SE was a good OS. I was never a fan of WinME; but Win98 SE did deliver exactly what it promised. I would encourage you to 'look' at WinXP, it is even more stable than Win98; as WinXP was built on the WinNT core. More features, more stable and just a wee bit faster (at the cost of more RAM). Besides, the NTFS is a much more secure and reliable method of storing data. I'm not saying that your hard drive won't fail, but the odds of having corrupt data ruin your file system is greatly diminished.

[snooker]

You are right. Those old win98 boxen don't do to well with WindowsXP.

Work just fine with the penguin. methinks that was the real problem.

First it was Sun's fault win98 was discontinued, then is it Sun's fault the support is back?

The lies get confusing.

[McGruff]

I have Windows 98 for my wife and kid and Windows 2000 for myself dual booting on multiple computers. They all work fine.

If you are just browsing the Internet, accessing email or playing games it doesn't much matter whether you are using Windows 98 or 2000.

[DeFault User]

My version of Win 98SE:

[Consort]

Yes, I used NT4.0 at work and at home for several years with very few problems. Our Win 98 had shutdown problems at times. We've had XP Pro for about a year and recently added an XP Home Edition PC, as well. So far, so good.

[50sDad]

Sadly, I always thought of myself as having a flexible brain when it comes to technology, but I have discovered that MS will have to offer one heck of a new animal to get me to ever stop using 98SE. ME seemed buggish on the machines I have seen it run; granted, those were upgraded from 98 and people praise a full install of ME. Still, I am more than happy with 98SE.

[Cyber Liberty]

I agree with you. 98 SE worked reasonably well for me, but I've found XP to be far, far superior. It even "feels" different.

[Xenalyte]

Geesh. I was hoping I'd have a good excuse to move my technically challenged friends off 98 and ME to XP, and now I'll have to come up with another one.

[antiRepublicrat]

Likewise, when they do something benevolent, it should at least be recognized.

That's why I posted this, fair's fair. And I really don't like Windows or Microsoft in general much.

[js1138]

I seriously doubt many of those Win98 boxes have enough horse power to be worth upgrading to Windows 2000 Or Windows XP.

By 2006 those machines will be entering a hardware failure rate. I do believe, however, in keeping old machines and old OS installations available to prevent total assimilation into the world of Big Brother computing. At some point the government will have its fingers in every computer. Already Adobe has currency recognition software built into the latest Photoshop, so that it will no open an image containing a photograph of paper money. That's a start.

[philetus]

Here's a new Linux that looks better than anything I've seen. Has anyone tried it?
http://www.xandros.com/quotes.html

[antiRepublicrat]

I seriously doubt many of those Win98 boxes have enough horse power to be worth upgrading to Windows 2000 Or Windows XP.

I upgraded a K6-2-350 '98 laptop that had 32MB RAM to W2K after sticking in another 128MB. It ran fine for email, Web surfing and other basic stuff. I suppose it would have run XP with all the eye candy turned off.

[6ppc]

Windows 98 is forever: It never shuts down.

LOL! You left the smiley ;^) off!

[Pharmer]

Good ridance

I have WinXP running on 2 computers (1 OEM Compaq P4 and 1 WinME upgrade on an HP PIII) and it works fine when my computer illiterate wife and know-it-all 16 year old daughter don't mess with it.

But I also have an IBM PIII that refuses to be upgraded to XP hence am still running ME. But as my son uses it for gaming I keep trying to maintain it. It crashes constantly and does not shut down properly. But the computer was cheap so no big loss other than my son's games

[antiRepublicrat]

I agree with you. 98 SE worked reasonably well for me, but I've found XP to be far, far superior. It even "feels" different.

98SE was okay for basic stuff, but I had to do graphics on a 98SE box for a while and it would constantly become unstable, requiring about four reboots a day to keep things running.