Windows 98 Sent To The Wolves

[AngelfireUk83]

MS seem to have ended support for Win98 early than what they stated a few weeks back which was July 11. Inquirer reports that a security flaw which is in 98 all the way upto XP was fixed for 2000 to XP but 98 was left out. Why...? they couldn't be bothered to tinker with the old op system to fix it.

So it would seem that it has ended support I'm going to take this officially luckly for me thou. The Windows 98 machine I just built won't be on the net once I have all the updates which where last released.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32418

[FeuerFrei]

Why do you need 98?

I suggest you to switch to at least 2k, or Linux if you feel so. 98 is in my opinion too unstable and vulnerable to be used on a desktop, let alone a server...

[Shelnutt2]

98 is in my opinion too unstable and vulnerable to be used on a desktop, let alone a server...

I disagree. Windows 98 imho is very stable. I'm used it for servers several times. Now I am talking about 98. Not 98SE, but the first version of 98.

[citronym]

Obviously a newer and more advanced OS has its benefits. But I agree with the previos post that win98 wasn't too bad, especially for it's time. Of course theres no way it can compete with XP (unless you have an older machine that simply cannon run XP), but I had a lot of success with it back in the day. I am totally hooked on NT kernels now, however, and don't forsee a reason to every use 98 again at this point in time.

[AngelfireUk83]

however, and don't forsee a reason to every use 98 again at this point in time.

I still like it have done since it's hayday just like the interface of it and some games I have don't seem to like XP.

[Bios24]

I LOL at Windows 98. I haven't run it on any of my machines for almost 5 years now. Obviously it still has some uses, but should be considered legacy software for all hardware and applications.

[Captain Newbie]

I disagree. Windows 98 imho is very stable. I'm used it for servers several times. Now I am talking about 98. Not 98SE, but the first version of 98.
It's not a server operating system and has NO concept of access controls or permissions at ALL, so using it as anything more than a single-user desktop is highly NOT recommended. For its time it was satisfactory for desktop operations, but there's no real reason to run it now instead of a *nix. From the "you might get pwnt" perspective I wouldn't run it at ALL unless I were sandboxed.

[benbaked]

98 "first edition" was bad, mainly because of the integrated internet explorer 4 which may quite possibly be the worst version of internet explorer ever slapped together. 98SE was much better, more stable, even to run apache IMO...but eight years old is a pretty old system to keep releasing updates for. 2k's day of reckoning will soon be around the corner.

[soulfly1448]

What are you talking about? They ended support for 98 several years ago. At least according to the MS website. Whatever, it's time to let the past be the past. Yes, 98 was a good system. Stable, if you know what you're doing, and rock solid.

[Hipcrostino]

nah they had support up untill he said. by support we mean update, thats all.

i just love the fact that its so small! it runs on nothing compared the NT systems (inc XP). i used it untill i had no real choice. my dads laptop still uses it cause it would run shocking on anything else (p3 800 with 128 ram )

[benbaked]

98 flies on older hardware, even on the slowest celerons. i used to run 95A on a toshiba 386sx-16mhz laptop with 4 meg of ram, took five minutes to bootup, 16 grayscale solitaire!

[FeuerFrei]

Old school comps run under 98SE w/o trouble, but they're uber-old...

Celly's Mendocino 400mhz
32mb PC66 SDRAM
4-6gb HD (depends...)

Imaged every week to clear the s*** accumulated due to incompetent students

[nd4spdbh2]

he he i remember 98se.... i had it on my old cs server... 466mhz celly with 10gb hd and 348mb of ram... DAMN was the install small around 750megs...

i coulda sworn windows 98 support was ended last summer?

[AngelfireUk83]

It was supposed to be but MS extended it by another 12 months now it's over for sure.

[Enablingwolf]

This wolf used to like 98. Now this wolf says MS can keep it. :D

It is so broken and no support, I cannot imagine all those who cannot afford to get a new OS. What they are going to do.

I know of 6 in my family who are now stuck. I have the dilema of fixing a non supported( no more fixes) OS or just letting it rot with me denying any help. I am sure at one point soon, I will have to decide.

[Ebola]

Apparently they would have had to rewrite a major part of the OS to fix a new security flaw so they decided to can it. Can't really blame them on this. It's well past its prime.

[Cheator]

Well, while Windows 98 isn't the best, it was damn stable compared to 95, and therefore a good Os at the time. The unfortuante thing is people like charities, non profit organizations, and schools.

These institutions, which a suprising number still operate 98, are now forced to upgrade for the sake of security. I can understand MS not wanting to support this, but what I would like to see is them offering a discount to those buying windows XP or whatever. Say, offer them a 10% discount with their windows 98 keys. It'd be general courtesy, sicne their support for windows 98 doesn't end until July.

Anyway, its fairly normal I suppose, ad at least it was mentioned and notkept secret.

[stool]

Jeez, does this mean I should throw away my Windows for Workgroups floppies?

[Captain Newbie]

Jeez, does this mean I should throw away my Windows for Workgroups floppies?
Yes...VERY yes...

[RJARRRPCGP]

The extended support isn't supposed to end until July!

Some people already think that the hotfixes stopped!

At one place, they refuse to allow internet access to a PC that still had Windows 98,
because they think that Microsoft didn't make hotfixes for Windows 98 anymore!

[Enablingwolf]

The last update was the final one. July 11th is the official date of its transition.

I am going to casually monitor how many Win9x hit my site for the next 180 days. Just to see how fast users are actually juming ship. Every so often I see the 95 user pop in.

In a way most will jump at the hype, then some will use the machine regardless of how it is supported by security updates. In a perfect world I should see a sharp drop in hits by 9X machines.

Here is the last 7 days of for one of my project pages. In the next 60 days. I should see a drop in 98/ME machines.

http://www.enablingwolf.com/OCpix/stats.png

[AngelfireUk83]

Well I have still got my copy of Win98se and I'm keeping it for my Win98se games only. I'll get all the security updates for it store them to disc and my neece can use it when they come round to see my parents. Then I can keep on this baby while they do whatever they like on that.

Anyways HYPE always seems to make people move or buy something that is in the news. They'll start to jump ship when they find out security hotfixes will end once July is over.

E-Wolf in 60 days time please post your results so I can see how far they drop.

Many thanks.

[ShadowPho]

I believe that Win 98/se is far more stable to Win2k. Of course it was just my expierence, and YMMV.
So if I had a PC that couldnt handle Linux/XP I would install 98se

[outhouse]

i just rebuilt a celly laptop 233 mhz cpu 160 ram 3g hd and win me

its fine and dandy so far i guess the relatives will mess it up in no time :)

[petteyg359]

98 pwns. 2000 and XP won't run any of the MechWarrior series of games, and ME and 98SE suck $#!%, so that leaves you with 98 or 95, of which 98 is better. And I need my MechWarrior to live :) Don't tell me to use Linux for that, I've already tried, most of my games do not work. I use Linux when I want to play any UT games or Quake games.

btw you don't have to use IE4 with it... it'll take 5.5 if you run WU on it...

[Knacko]

Microsoft was able to patch the security flaw, but a lot of common programs would not run afterwards. Finding a way to fix the flaw without the side effects was not worth it to pursue.

[tenchi86]

Honestly that drew the line of not supporting it anymore and if they fixed this there would have just been a new flaw found in a week that people demmanded to be patched, after all the last flaw that they demmanded to be patched was right?

[Captain Newbie]

Honestly that drew the line of not supporting it anymore and if they fixed this there would have just been a new flaw found in a week that people demmanded to be patched, after all the last flaw that they demmanded to be patched was right?
They should all be patched :D

The problem with Windows in general is that it's poorly documented and developers--sometimes even Microsoft people (MechWarrior is a MSFT Games product, right?) who should know better--have to resort to kludgy, insecure hacks to make stuff work well, or even at all. Then when they fix the holes applications are left high and dry. Silly devs. :)

[AngelfireUk83]

So with it been branded as old do you think hackers will bother to create viruses for it at all since people will be or probably be upgrading to XP. I mean it'll be pointless sat there typing code for a Op that's basically obsolete. Even thou I just put together an old Duron 850 with it on about 2 hours ago.

[AngelfireUk83]

I found the website to the criticial security flaws in 98 excluding the 1 that they wouldn't fix from this months updates. Anyways should I download and back-up all of these for my offline 98 machine I just put together for my brothers kids to play on.

I'm still thinking they will let you scan a 98 machine on Windows Update to get the updates which are available. Or will MS take off 98 support totally from there website.

[Cyrix_2k]

The last update was the final one. July 11th is the official date of its transition.

I am going to casually monitor how many Win9x hit my site for the next 180 days. Just to see how fast users are actually juming ship. Every so often I see the 95 user pop in.

In a way most will jump at the hype, then some will use the machine regardless of how it is supported by security updates. In a perfect world I should see a sharp drop in hits by 9X machines.

Here is the last 7 days of for one of my project pages. In the next 60 days. I should see a drop in 98/ME machines.

http://www.enablingwolf.com/OCpix/stats.png
no offense, but you need a better audience for your site. There were more Windows 95 hits than Linux hits, and ME tied Linux. I don't care who you are, I'm sure we can all agree that Linux is better than ME.

[on topic] I'm actually surprised MS maintained 98 for all this time. Are they still maintaining ME? As for my machines, we have five that run XP and are used frequently, two that run 95 that I think are still in one piece, one partially dismantled 95 box, a really messed up and dismantled 98->XP eMachine box, one partially dismantled DOS/Win 3.1 box, and two linux lappies as they lack hard drives and are used only for war driving. Oh, and I also just got a free P4 running XP, although I think it died during transportation. I really don't care as it's an intel ;)

[Enablingwolf]

This report is from my father in laws pages. It is just a project of mine. The audience is really average joes. It is not about computers, it is about bluegrass. So the average person is hitting the site.

Why would I need a better audience? It is tageted towards average people. I think I found it. Least my father in law did. Most can care less what Linux is, they want to be able to surf and look at pictures. Most free reports will show Me as 98. In my domain report it is much different. I don't just share that though.

[Cyrix_2k]

This report is from my father in laws pages. It is just a project of mine. The audience is really average joes. It is not about computers, it is about bluegrass. So the average person is hitting the site.

Why would I need a better audience? It is tageted towards average people. I think I found it. Least my father in law did. Most can care less what Linux is, they want to be able to surf and look at pictures. Most free reports will show Me as 98. In my domain report it is much different. I don't just share that though.


I was joking anyway. I'm just glad to see people aren't using ME *shudders*