I'm interested to learn more about these computers. It seems to me that the generic VGA, keyboard, mouse, etc drivers included with windows XP ought to work fine with any pentium class or greater system. Of course, it may not run optimally, and you may lose out on hardware functionality you've come to depend on. But they should be capable of running Windows XP. Further, many hardware vendors don't supply WinXP specific drivers for their hardware since the driver is included in WinXP. You may find that it runs fine with WinXP despite the apparant lack of drivers. You'll want to dial down a lot of the eye candy features for performance reasons, but I have yet to find a computer that didn't do better with WinXP than it ever did with Win98. Also, go ahead and start using Atmel regardless of what Microchip does. Try out TI, Renesas, etc as well. The more tools you have, the better you can approach any given problem. Lastly, even though they'll stop targetting Win98/ME/NT the latest version of MPLAB has a lot of life left in it. I'd be very surprised to find that you have to quit using PICMicro processors completely because of this change within the next 5 years. I'd be _very_ surprised if you didn't get a new computer within that time that supported WinXP. So the impact should be very little overall. At worst you'll not be able to use some of the latest processors. Look at the most recent processor you used - did it come out this year? When did it come out? Many, if not most, PIC hobbyists are 2-3 years behind, especially considering that MChip often 'releases' a chip, makes it available in MPlab, but doesn't have it available in production quantities for several months or longer. Still, it can be annoying to have to use obsolete but still perfectly usable equipment, especially when it can't support the latest and greatest. -Adam On 4/3/06, Roy J. Gromlich - PA wrote: > Now that's nice. I have two computers here - one running Win98SE and the other running Win0Me. > Neither is capable of running Win-XP, as there are NO DRIVERS available for either one of them to > support those OS releases. > > Thank you MicroChip - I suppose I will have to look at the Atmegas after all. > > Roy J. Gromlich > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: William Killian > To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public. > Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 1:54 PM > Subject: RE: [PIC] MPLAB IDE support will be discontinued on Win 98/ME/NT > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On > Behalf > > Of Bob Barr > > Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 1:04 PM > > To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public. > > Subject: Re: [PIC] MPLAB IDE support will be discontinued on Win > 98/ME/NT > > > > On Mon, 3 Apr 2006 10:56:38 -0500, Danny Sauer wrote: > > > > >Xiaofan wrote regarding '[PIC] MPLAB IDE support will be discontinued > on > > Win 98/ME/NT' on Sun, Apr 02 at 05:24: > > >> http://forum.microchip.com/tm.aspx?m=152394 > > >> > > >> I think it makes perfect business sense for Microchip to do this. > > > > > >So we'll all have to "upgrade" to Vista, since Windows NT 5.0 (AKA > > >2000) and 5.1 (AKA XP) won't be supported anymore? > > > > > > > >From what I've seen on the Microchip forums, Win2K and WinXP will > > still be supported. Win98, WinME, and WinNT are being dropped as > > supported operating systems. > > > > > > Regards, Bob > > It makes sense to me for Microchip to support the same Windows platforms > that Microsoft does and no more. They seem to think the same way. > > > > > ------------------------------------- Notice of Confidentiality ---------------------------------------------------------- > This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the > individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify > postmaster@vgt.net. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the > individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or > copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by > mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. If you are not the intended recipient you are notified > that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information > is strictly prohibited. > > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist