[OT] Microsoft to retire Windows 98

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gordon Darling
  • Start date Start date
G

Gordon Darling

Dec. 8 — Microsoft will retire several of its products next week,
including Windows 98 and SQL Server 7, to comply with a court order
related to its dispute with Sun Microsystems over Java. In a posting to
Microsoft’s developer Web site, the company lists several older products
that are being phased out and that will no longer be available to
customers as of Dec. 15.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/1002736.asp?cp1=1#BODY

Regards
Gordon
 
Gordon said:
Dec. 8 — Microsoft will retire several of its products next week,
including Windows 98 and SQL Server 7, to comply with a court order
related to its dispute with Sun Microsystems over Java. In a posting to
Microsoft’s developer Web site, the company lists several older products
that are being phased out and that will no longer be available to
customers as of Dec. 15.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/1002736.asp?cp1=1#BODY
Click to expand...

I love how M$ always manages to twist a court order into something
that works in their favor.
 
Dec. 8 — Microsoft will retire several of its products next week,
including Windows 98 and SQL Server 7, to comply with a court order
related to its dispute with Sun Microsystems over Java. In a posting to
Microsoft’s developer Web site, the company lists several older products
that are being phased out and that will no longer be available to
customers as of Dec. 15.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/1002736.asp?cp1=1#BODY

Regards
Gordon
Click to expand...

They stopped doing automatic updates to Win98 a while ago. The last
time I manually ran Windows Update on my Win98 machine the only thing
that happened was that the update task magically disappeared from the
Scheduled Tasks folder.
 
John Corliss said:
I love how M$ always manages to twist a court order into something
that works in their favor.
Click to expand...

They are only hurting themselves. Newer users who buy a computer
houser newer, crappier versions of their OS will not exactly be enthralled.
Sooner or later, when a viable alternative emerges, those users will be
less hesitant to jump ship.

dos-man
 
Does it include Win98SE?

Thanks
Click to expand...

I assume so. The original Win98 hasn't been available through my OEM
channels for a long time - probably around two years now.

Regards
Gordon
 
They are only hurting themselves. Newer users who buy a computer houser
newer, crappier versions of their OS will not exactly be enthralled.
Click to expand...

Actually, they *will* be enthralled. ;)

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=thrall&db=*

thrall P Pronunciation Key (thrôl)
n.
1 a One, such as a slave or serf, who is held in bondage.
b One who is intellectually or morally enslaved.

3 Servitude; bondage: "a people in thrall to the miracles of commerce" (Lewis H. Lapham).
 
Dos-Man said:
They are only hurting themselves. Newer users who buy a computer
houser newer, crappier versions of their OS will not exactly be enthralled.
Sooner or later, when a viable alternative emerges, those users will be
less hesitant to jump ship.
Click to expand...

Are you saying that Win98 was the pinnacle of Microsoft's product line, and
it's been downhill since then???? :)
 
techie said:
Actually, they *will* be enthralled. ;)

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=thrall&db=*

thrall P Pronunciation Key (thrôl)
n.
1 a One, such as a slave or serf, who is held in bondage.
b One who is intellectually or morally enslaved.

3 Servitude; bondage: "a people in thrall to the miracles of commerce" (Lewis H. Lapham).
Click to expand...

Eh... there is another definition for that word (at least in the
WordWeb dictionary program):

"2. Filled with wonder and delight"

That kind of describes my reaction to Knoppix yesterday.
 
Lester Horwinkle said:
Are you saying that Win98 was the pinnacle of Microsoft's product line, and
it's been downhill since then???? :)
Click to expand...

I used to think so. Now I have a laptop with XP Pro and it has never
crashed. I think it's all in what you get used to.

My opinion, keep 98se, screw the security updates. I haven't troubled
myself with MS updates for anything but IE for over a year. I just
secure around my 98 box instead of securing the OS itself anyway.
There are still ways to harden 98 without MS support. I'm not going to
be forced into buying an OS because of this (and they are retiring
98SE 1/16/04 anyway btw)especially when any newer OS would be too
resource intensive for my box anyway, forcing me to get a new computer
to boot.

If they retire it and people keep it are they still going to reserve
the right to get pissed when people use one OEM CD to load 98 on a
gazillion puters though?? :)

David
 
---- Original Message ----
From: "David" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: alt.comp.freeware
Sent: Saturday, December 13, 2003 11:51 AM
Subject: Re: [OT] Microsoft to retire Windows 98
My opinion, keep 98se, screw the security updates. I haven't troubled
myself with MS updates for anything but IE for over a year. I just
secure around my 98 box instead of securing the OS itself anyway.
There are still ways to harden 98 without MS support. I'm not going to
be forced into buying an OS because of this (and they are retiring
98SE 1/16/04 anyway btw)especially when any newer OS would be too
resource intensive for my box anyway, forcing me to get a new computer
to boot.

If they retire it and people keep it are they still going to reserve
the right to get pissed when people use one OEM CD to load 98 on a
gazillion puters though?? :)
Click to expand...

I agree.
See
Users cling to old Microsoft operating systems
Last modified: December 12, 2003, 3:36 PM PST
By Ina Fried
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
http://msn-cnet.com.com/2100-1016_3-5121458.html?part=msn-cnet&subj=ns_2
"Microsoft can stop selling older operating systems, and it can even
stop supporting them, but that doesn't mean that customers won't still
use them.
"Even though Microsoft said this week that it will stop distributing
Windows 98 at the end of this month, a new study shows that a
substantial number of businesses, both large and small, are still
using it.
"The study, released this week by technology consultant AssetMetrix,
found that more than 80 percent of companies still have some machines
using Windows 95 or Windows 98. Of those companies still using the
older operating systems, an average of 39 percent of desktops were
running either Windows 95 or Windows 98.
"Windows XP, the most current version of Windows, was found on just
6.6 percent of the machines.
"Consumers are also still widely using Windows 98. Google reported
that 29 percent of searches done in September came from machines
running Windows 98, as compared with 38 percent from Windows XP-based
PCs and 20 percent from Windows 2000 machines."

DanlK, FYI Services
www.FYIS.org
Visit our www.FYIS.org/estore
 
David said:
I used to think so. Now I have a laptop with XP Pro and it has never
crashed. I think it's all in what you get used to.

My opinion, keep 98se, screw the security updates. I haven't troubled
myself with MS updates for anything but IE for over a year. I just
secure around my 98 box instead of securing the OS itself anyway.
There are still ways to harden 98 without MS support. I'm not going to
be forced into buying an OS because of this (and they are retiring
98SE 1/16/04 anyway btw)especially when any newer OS would be too
resource intensive for my box anyway, forcing me to get a new computer
to boot.
Click to expand...

If you practice common sense methods like configuring your mail reader
not to open attachments automatically, configure your browser not to
automatically install software, etc. and have a good firewall and AV
program installed (and running all the time), there's no reason to
worry about not using the security updates. In fact, I studiously
avoid MS updates these days because I firmly believe that MS is
including things in their "updates" that further their hidden agendas
(for instance DRM - digital rights management - and the like.)
If they retire it and people keep it are they still going to reserve
the right to get pissed when people use one OEM CD to load 98 on a
gazillion puters though?? :)
Click to expand...

You're talking about Microsoft.
 
»Q« said:
The announcement post says "all win98 except SE" -

<http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=#[email protected]&output=gplain>

And the date the stuff will be made unavailable to MSDN subscribers
has been pushed back to 12:01 AM Pacific Time on December 23.

<http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=#[email protected]&output=gplain>
Click to expand...

I just read that message.

<quote>
| In order to give our subscribers more time to download copies of the
| content scheduled to be removed from MSDN Subscriber Downloads, we have
| reset the revision date to 12:01 AM Pacific Time on December 23. The
| following products will be removed permanently from MSDN Subscriber
| Downloads at that time:
|
[...]
| Windows 98 Resource Kit
</quote>

The complete (not just the sampler, as on the W98 CD) reskit has been
available for some time to the public. I'd think it will continue to be so,
seeing that Technet still today has the MSDOS and Win95 reskits available.
That it's only a removal from the MSDN subscribers' downloads in effect
here...

However, just in case, I'd advise those w98 users who don't have the reskit,
to get it sooner and not later.

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Services/TechNet/samples/PS/Win98/Reskit/

To get that whole thing, with the recursed directories, transferred to local
drive, I use IE's "FTP folders" feature. A drag and drop of /Reskit/. Perhaps
there are dedicated FTP programs that can do similar. My point is to advise
that the inappropriate tool for this is a download manager.

| IE 5.5

Since even earlier versions of MSIE are available at various places, such as
planetmirror, I don't think that this withdrawal from MSDN downloads means
MSFT will start trying to prohibit outside MSIE redistributions.

http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/microsoft/ie/

Oh, wait. Now I'm reading the message from the first URL provided by »Q«.

<quote>
| Due to a settlement agreement reached in January 2001, the following
| products are being phased out and will no longer available to customers
| through MSDN Subscriber Downloads or other channels at Microsoft.
</quote>

"Or other channels at Microsoft." So maybe part of my presumption is correct,
that you can still download MSIE 5.5 from elsewhere (and Office 2000 sp2, for
those who need that); but possibly not the other part. That is, since Technet
is a channel at Microsoft, their message then implies that the w98 reskit
will be withdrawn. I don't know if they mean it. But better to make sure to
download now, those who don't have it.

User Note. You can opt to ignore running the Setup. No loss in that, since
..mmc was in a limited prototype stage of development in w98. Have it instead
as a pick-and-choose collection of small, standalone tools. The help files
for those tools are good, explaining what's included.

In addition to the included tools, the download will bring you the Resource
Kit "Book" (rk98book.chm, 3.2mb).
 
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