Jose Da Silva writes:

> Basically, the lifecycle for Win98se  ended in 2003, but the problem is that 
> too many people were still using Windows9x in 2003.

Three good reasons for this:

1.  Most machines that shipped with Windows 98 aren't capable of
    running W2K, let alone XP.

2.  Re-installing the OS is beyond most users.

3.  Most people are too cheap to purchase a new OS.

And besides, as long as Win98 is running, why bother to change?

There is a very odd reality here.  It is *almost* cheaper to purchase
a new machine running XP/SP2 pre-installed than it is to pay someone
to re-install Windows 98, properly configure all the device drivers,
and install all the security patches.

Personally, I've never been able to keep a Windows98 machine running
for more than a few months.  Not as a result of Spyware or virii, but
simply as a result of all the cruft that builds up making the machine
unstable.  Most of the non-technical (pre NT) Windows users I know
think that rebooting several times a day is a normal fact of computer
usage.

>  Normally, microsoft 
> would probably stop updates, therefore forcing people to live with unpatched 
> 98 machines or preferably migrate to a higher OS.  Unfortunately due to 
> linux, either Microsoft extend support, or face the possibility that people 
> now had a choice and may migrate to another competitor.
> Thank linux for the fact you still have Win98 support until 2007.

Well, that might be a slight exaggeration.  ;-)

Unfortunately, Linux apps are suffering from bloat as much (if not
more) than Windows apps these days.  Sure, the Linux kernel will run
just fine on a 200 Mhz Pentium, and you can even get X/Windows running
comfortably -- so long as you just want to run xterms.  Firefox crawls
along even on a 400 Mhz machine that isn't swapping.  And you can just
forget about Gnome or KDE on Windows98 class hardware.

And while the Linux kernel might be stable, many of the apps are not.
For example, I have an old Pentium-233 laptop running as an audio
client in my bedroom.  I couldn't find a single streaming audio app
that wouldn't crash on a regular basis.  This is not to mention the
fact that I was never able to get the machine to sleep properly.  With
great pain and suffering, I put Windows 98 on the box and installed
WinAmp.  Much to my great surprise, the machine hasn't crashed but
once or twice in the past year.  Of course, the machine does nothing
at all besides run WinAmp.

> > The 400MHz eMachines I bought quite a few 
> > years ago shipped with W98.  Don't forget that W98se was just an
> > updated version of W98, except for the new CD and all the people
> > microsoft managed to trick into buying the "W98se upgrade cd" even
> > though they already owned W98 (it was actually for W95 customers.)

If I understand correctly, the "SE" bits get installed automatically
when you do a "Windows Update" on any Win98 box.  Of course, in the
days before everyone had broadband, having SE on a cdrom was a huge
timesaver, and worth paying a few bucks for...

-p.
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