The end of Windows 98 (and WinME)

Filed under: OS Updates, Security, Windows, Microsoft, Commercial

The end of Windows 98 (and WinME)

by Jordan Running Jul 5th 2006

Did you know there are still 70 million PCs out there running Windows 98 or Windows ME? No, really. Though Microsoft had originally pledged to support those operating systems with updates through January 2004, they extended that cut-off date for business users. Now the real cut-off date--next Tuesday, July 11--is coming, and we can finally say that Win98 and ME are over. What of those 70 million hold-outs? Well, Microsoft is encouraging them to run Windows Update one last time and then, I guess, just keep their fingers crossed. Or get an XP-capable PC or, failing that, install Linux.

[Via Netscape]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Gardiner Westbound said 5:51PM on 7-05-2006

Win98 and WinMe are mostly installed on older computers that lack the moxy for WinXP and aren't worth upgrading. Ubuntu Linux and a host of very competent open source programs run just fine on these, and are free.

Robert said 10:23AM on 7-06-2006

We are a medical software house, and I'm AMAZED at the number of doctors' offices still on Win98. "It works!" is all we get, and with terminal servers, I guess it DID make sense not to upgrade. But now, I guess we'll have a REAL reason to tell them to upgrade. These people were on the "cutting edge" of the network installs. Some still run NT servers and have so much money invested in their systems, they say they can't afford to upgrade.

Textbook Seller said 2:10PM on 7-06-2006

I have some computers that just run one appliaction, and I have no reason to upgrade them. The 98 footprint is small, I know how to fix things that go wrong, and it does just work.

For example, I have a computer that runs Audacity and needs to be silent. It's running 98 on a fanless C3 processor and FFD drive. No way I could get XP going on this, and Linux is a crapshoot-- not worth the time to learn it for me.

duke hafa said 2:55PM on 7-06-2006

come on, what did Robert did to deserve a -1 ?

Peter said 6:04PM on 7-06-2006

duke - it probably happened before, it's not necessarily from this particular post.

Seller - But did you ever consider how much faster Audacity would run on a dual core Pentium? You can stick with your old hardware if you want, but you are missing out on many improvements.

Chris Wickersham said 6:09PM on 7-06-2006

I recently had occasion to work on a win 98SE computer. Someone donated a new printer for our church library (lexmark...ugh) and I was asked to make it work on the pc. The computer was a Pentium 200 with 32 megs of ram and was running win 98SE. I was actually surprised to find that the computer ran reasonably well (it wasn't networked...hmmm) even on that 'ancient' hardware. I had forgotten how well a stripped down version of 98 could run. I couldn't get the printer to work, though, so I pulled an old amd k6 or some such thing out of the closet (also 98SE) and fired it up with and everything worked fine once I transferred over the 1 program that the librarian wanted. I will add that I tried to run the k6 with ubuntu and it was absolutely unusable. It only has 64 megs of memory but I thought it would at least be useable. I'll be trying Damn Small Linux, just for fun, and see if I can get a comparable program to run under linux. I've also been thinking of using library thing to catalog our books and make our library searchable from any web browser. I wouldn't dream of putting 98 on the network with any of our other computers!

ryan said 3:53AM on 7-07-2006

Chris, have you tried xubuntu? I've had luck with it on older machines, none that old, though.

Claudiu Spulber said 7:20AM on 7-07-2006

I somehow doubt that there are 70 million still running Windows 98 or Me. A recent statistic http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats/ showed that only 4% still use Win 98/Me. I know this statistic applies for computers used to browse the Internet, but it still should reflect the reality. And with 4% representing 70 mil, that would mean 100% is 1.75 billions?

chemp said 8:30AM on 7-07-2006

I think it a logical step, they warned in advance, that support of this version will not be carried out:) Especially how many versions were after 98 - oh, to not count:)

Lipa said 1:47PM on 7-10-2006

Microsoft abandoning Windows 98 (my system) and WinME?
Shame on them.

chemp said 1:25PM on 8-02-2006

Lipa
why shame?
il's normal

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