Windows 98 shuts down

If you want state of the art hardware, you can always get a Unix workstation from the likes of Sun, HP, or IBM. You can easily get 32 GB RAM on such a system (if you have the cash). Also, sound and video cards were standard components on these back in 1989. PC hardware is the low, cheap, consumer end of the market.

 

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I think the argument is that the "cheap, consumer market" gets more power for the same money.

 

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why upgrade when there is no need?
my os works just fne.
my computer works just fine. as a matter of fact it has outlasted a monitor and 2 cd-rom drives. my internet connection speed has a maximum limit of 1.5 mbps but i have been downloading stuff at 216KBPS.

 

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can you tell me where the 8000 bugs are in my copy of win me?

 

Selective reading alert.

98 was introduced 8 years ago. You could still buy it 5 ago. So please no moaning anymore about it being 8 years old.

The support we are really talking about is as is mentioned in the thread: repairing a shitty piece of software. Design flaws.

I'm not expecting a company to support its software for 20 years. But Microsoft already announced to cancel all support in 2003. So you could have had the OS for considerably less than 5 years. Is 3 years support long enough then?

Of course there was an outrage then and MS continued support.

70 million users.

A car manufacturer actually have to garantee parts for his car for a certain time. I can't remember exactly how many and for how long, but I can bet you it is more than 3 years.

 

Number one, I've already acknowledged that you don't have to, but that thing's ancient.

Number two, you don't appear to be one of the people complaining about Microsoft not supporting Win98 anymore, so I don't know if my post strictly concerns you.

 

Why are you cutting off the time before XP came out? You "could have had" the OS since it was released.

 

you really cannot compare cars and software.

car makers gaurentee their power trains for something like 7 years or so. but this gaurentee has limits. for example you must keep it lubricated. and in some cases the lubrication must be carried out by the dealer. power train parts are solid steel. if they break it is usually right after you buy the car and the part was indeed defective.

software on the other hand is never finished, ever.

 

Someone else did.

 

Are you the biggest fucking moron (rhetorical question).

If I buy something last year I don't really care if it has been on the market for 1000 years. My interests start the day I buy the product. Not the day the product is released on the market.

 

And what if they extended the support time for 20 years, and then someone's interest in Win98 started the year before support was ended? Not the best argument.

It sounds like you do expect a company to support its software for 20-plus years.

 

support ... sale...

two different words.

use a dictionary.

 

I'm not to blame for your unclear logic and inability to interpret assumed things. Maybe if we say Microsoft supports and sells Win98 for twenty years? Maybe saying that overtly would help?

Also, why yo tongue gotta be harsh? It cramps your unique and enjoyable style, dude.

 

Don't blame others for your lack of intellectual abilities.

 

While I'm hardly one to support "forced" upgrade, the release of a new OS is sometimes necessary for new functionality. Forget 'games' and 'graphics' and 'you don't need a P4 with GBs of RAM'...what about simple re-engineering as plug and play devices. Imagine what a PAIN it would be to reboot your machine every time you want to sync your iPod. Or transfer some of those 'simple Word documents' to your new 1GB Cruzer.

I'd have to side with MS on this one, Win98 has simply become economically unsound for them to support simply because of the rush of new devices to market and the functionality the SAME users want.

It's also up to the user. If he's happy with the old Win98 clunker and has no use or desire for the WinXP features, by all means keep the machine. While MS is discontinuing support for Win98, their tech archives will still exist and there are MANY I.T. support shops and forums that exist.

 

hardware makers could make their stuff compatible with the older software.

the only reason i can see is there is mony to be made.

when my motherboard bites the dust i will have no choice but to buy a new machine. my winme will not work on it. either will 80% of my other software.
so, i will not only have to purchase a new os but i will also have to replace 80% of my other software. let me tell you something microsoft when that happens i will definetly switch to linux and send you an email telling you to go fuck yourself.

 

There are differences between the OS's, each new edition supports newer hardware and the older editions have restraints on the technology they are compatible with due to the technology available at the time of release.

Simply if you had a 64-bit computer with fully compliant multi-threading, you're not going to run an old OS that doesn't support it. To make the old OS support it would mean a complete re-write of it's code and therefore is the main reason why new versions of OS were probably generated in the first place.

Admittedly Win98 will be important for those people that are still using PI/PII PC's wth under 500mhz of processing power and below 256mb or Ram (infact 512mb would be advisable). The Older OS does suffer from a notorious buffer overflow problem in the sense that the RAM will be filled with information if left running over time without using a program to "Initialise" it every so often.

I do agree though that Consumerism is wrong in it's current sense. Microsoft should release a "Windows Lite" version, a version that is cut down from the bulk of all the hidden extra's usually spammed into the bundle which is either made dirt cheap to purchase or absolutely free. Microsoft wouldn't do themselves out of business considering people would then be more likely to buy expansion software or games, they also wouldn't be seen as a tight fisted organisation trying to pry every penny out of your purse.

 

All this is what I've been trying to say. Though maybe I wasn't explaining it adequately enough for people to understand.

Good post, Enterprise-D.

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They could, and they certainly are free to do so in our economy. But it's sorta like I mentioned earlier: If they're focusing on making sure their stuff works on old stuff, they aren't focusing as much as they could be on making it work well on newer stuff.

 

Oh, you never know. There are some anti-Microsoft zealots out there who would say it's just another evil scheme, for the very reason you say they wouldn't.

 

i disagree, color tv is a good example
alot of color tv technical specs was made soley to make it compateble with the black and white signal. thats why you can watch a color movie and a black and white movie on the same set.