Bill Grants Another Reprieve For Windows 98

[Mr. C]

Microsoft has yet again rolled back the "non-support" & "End Of Life" dates for Windows 98.

Non-Support is now scheduled for January 16, 2004.

End Of Life is now rolled back to January 16, 2005.

See it here;

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycleconsumer.mspx

That gives us OS users a few months more before we need to make the big jump into Linux:thumb:
Cool! 'Cause my hardware isn't all supported by linux yet.

Speculation is that the OS has perhaps proven too popular to let it go just yet (this is of course, the second extension on the MS death sentence).

Maybe I'm not the only one saying, "No." to the releases from Microsoft since Windows 98.

[minibubba]

So good 'ole 98 has only got 6 months before it becomes 'non-supported'? All it is, is an attempt to force people to upgrade. I'm willing to bet that this isn't the last extension for win98 that we'll see.

Personally, I think winXP is a far superior to win98, but I can easily understand people's unwillingness to upgrade :)


After all I've read about 'Longhorn' I'm sure it's one M$ that I wont be upgrading to (if you can call it that). My next full-time OS will be linux (i've got it on another HDD, but atm it's just for practice)

[Beefy]

Personally, I think winXP is a far superior to win98, but I can easily understand people's unwillingness to upgrade :)

In most cases, it's more the fact that the machines aren't quite up to scratch and don't run XP too well.

[The__tweaker]

My slowest sucker actually runs XP Pro/sp1 very well.

It's only 350 mhz cpu power, plenty of mem though.. 300+

Those old machines ain't never fast but I don't have to wait mutch longer for this one to do stuff than with 98se installed. Note I'm a big fan of 98se, it's a great OS even if it's getting old.

[Mr. C]

Possibly, Beefy.

My reason for rejection is that the XP CUSS is wasting a lot of cycles, resources, RAM and HDD space doing numerous items unrelated to the tasks I wish to perform.

True, much of this extraneous processes can be shut off. In the time it would take me to go through all that, I'd have been fully tweaked and enjoying the forum already with 98.

Just way to much computing for dummies built in to XP. Give me an OS anyday and leave the Fisher-Price BS for the kiddies.
I might hurt myself from time to time on the sharp edges, but I'll survive.

As a CUSS for an office environment, I can truly see where it would be a great thing for a sysadmin.

But hey, I'm just a dude at home, you know.

[minibubba]

Just way to much computing for dummies built in to XP. Give me an OS anyday and leave the Fisher-Price BS for the kiddies.

it's pretty easy to shut off all the crap and strip it down to functional OS (well, as close to that as M$ can get)

[The__tweaker]

True, much of this extraneous processes can be shut off. In the time it would take me to go through all that, I'd have been fully tweaked and enjoying the forum already with 98.

I second that.. :( + the fact is it's the best gaming platform ever done..

[Wiggo]

I'm sorry for some of ya's as I work with systems that in no way will work with anything more than Win98 and I do have an old Celery 333 and even with most services turned off it's still a real slug runnin' 2K and XP (a BIOS update to this system will not let a Win9x os be loaded) plus there are still many more systems out there that are slower but ppl still want them usable so I think it's a good move (a lot of ppl out there don't know what to do with Linux).

[Frost]

Windows 2000 kernel, and the XP kernel (operating system manifest) have a whole lot in common..MUCH. There are slight variances that make XP different from the Windows 2000, but they both are, perhaps, the stabelest of OS that Microsoft developed. One of the things that make them so stable is their defacto Administrative rights, and that the operating systems controls are not easily removed, replaced, or adjusted without some key elements comming to bear. Ever try deleting some .dll file in the Windows systems32 subdirectory? not easily done. There are certain things that are "protected" and for a reason. Noone, or even an installer (software) can remove or modify certain critical system files in Windows XP. This is the crux of the stabilty of Windows XP over 98SE, etc.

With the Win 98 series, it was quite common for a sofware vendor to have, say some dll files that worked great with that particular program, and/or some other drivers, etc. But, since they were so specific to that piece of software, then any software that was installed prior would not have the needed dll files or others that it needed to work smoothly. Software began to conflict with each other and even with the operating system, until you had the blue screen of death pop up.

Sure, there are a lot of services that are running when it intitially boots up. Some are necessary, while others are, at the time, luxuries, that do take up resources (RAM). They acquire an address spot in ram, and just sit there waiting for some sort of user input before they are anything of great importance. Microsoft did this as an "assumption" that nearly all computers would be upgraded, would be faster and have adequate ram and processor power. It was built with the idea in mind that these things, although resourse hungry, would not interfer with normal opeating, and would be the enhancements that would be necessary at a moments notice when an application called for them. analogy: You put a fairly large engine (V6 or V8) into a car. You then do not add, Air conditioning, power stering, cruise conrtol, electric windows, electric seats, etc because that would drain on the resourses (as in horsepower) of the engine. You drive around in the cold parts of the year without turning on the Air Conditioner, but that does not warrant ripping it out from under the hood, you might want it when it's hot.. and then it's nice. Yea.. you can get by without power stering, but who want's to fight the stering wheel.

Yea you can do without the XYZ service running, but it might come in real handy when you're running ABC Software. And that extra unused ram in there.... comes in pretty nice during CD burning, and intensine programs use at times, else it just sits there waiting to be filled.

Linux.. another story. Wonderful operating system, and quite powerful and not easy for others to hack into. Great for servers, like web servers, file servers, and also for stand alones. Drawback? File system pretty delicate. Ever notice that UNIX and Linux computers are nearly ALWAYS connected to an APS battery backup to allow the system to go throught proper shut down in a power event loss? On our SCO UNIX computers at work, we have a battery back up. An unexpected power shut down, while the sytem is up and operating can corrupt data so bad that it could take hours and days to get everything fully resored again. No a fun thing. Home users are funny about shutting down computers and improper shutdown of a linux computer could cause some serious ramnifications later on in their system. Consumers also like the idea of going to Amazon.com, or local stores and picking out software. Something about actually reading the package and what it 'can' do for you excites the consumer.. sad but true! Linux is not at that stage as yet. Go buy Raven Shield for you Linux computer on line and when arrives.... no cigars. See what I mean? It comes with a ton of free stuff.. software, games toys, apps, etc.. and if you are willing to limit yourself to those things designed for Linux, then you're golden. Well, this got long, huh?:o

[amd_man2005]

I ran XP Pro SP1 on an old AMD K6 200mhz with 128megs of RAM, and used all the visual styles. Ran smooth as silk, even wtih the lacxk of ram

[Mr. C]

That was well said Frost:)

I've got the UPS anyway (rural area, you know).

Truth is, I expect Windows 98 to provide me with the functionality I need for the immediate future. I'm not rushing to Linux because of a date on Microsoft's calendar anymore than I am rushing to XP because of an advertising campaign.

I guess mostly I'm just dragging my feet with Linux because I have so much time already invested in learning the 9x environment -- damn, I hate to start all over again.

Once you've ran, it's just so hard to go back to crawling.

[Wiggo]

amd_man2003[/size]]
I ran XP Pro SP1 on an old AMD K6 200mhz with 128megs of RAM, and used all the visual styles. Ran smooth as silk, even wtih the lacxk of ram

Smooth? Maybe. :confused:
Quick? I'd hate to see what ya think quick is (soz I forgot about those awesome PCChip mobo's that ya have). :rofl:

[amd_man2005]

Not quick at all. PCChips obssesion? not me:shrug: