MicroSlop droppiing 98se support

[mikeford]

Just to be technical what I have read is that MS is dropping person to person support, ie phone calls and email replies. If they dropped all support they would be in court the next day after some new security hole shows up etc.

Besides as I see it its not MS support that concerns me, its when I start buying games or new hardware and it doesn't work with 98se. I doubt that will happen until supprt is dropped for ME, since 98 drivers have so much in common with ME drivers.

 

[PowerMacG5]

Uhm, all products have a life cycle. 98 and 98SE happen to be approaching the EOL (End of Life) section. When 95 support was dropped, did we have court cases? No. 98 and 98SE are 7 year old technology; they are at the end of the life cycle. Just as XP will be in 2009.

 

[drag]

Of course dropping win98 support isn't all just life cycle, every thing MS does is based on marketing. Everything. People are beginning to seriously need to upgrade there computers. Most people know someone that is computer savy, so instead of going out to by new computers (that come with windows pre-packaged) they simply head down to the local computer store and get a barebones, or have their couson or son or something order parts from online places. That way they can get a new computer at maybe 70% of the price of a computer from a big store like Dell or whatnot.

And since win98 is probably still the most commonly used OS out their, many people would simply install a old copy of win98 on the new computer instead of spending the extra hundred dollors on a xp liscence.

This way by dropping support you are ensuring that win98 will no longer work with new computer parts, so they are forced to upgrade.

This is just the sort of thing that you have to expect to deal with when you deal with MS.

If you don't like it their are plenty of OSes that don't involve such tactics. For instance I use Debian. It does continous updates, I update it on a weekly bases, so I never have to worry about it becoming obsolete like win98. Gentoo is another OS that does continuous updates. Redhat can be used that way even, but they have version numbers more like traditoinal software companies.

So use your voice as a customer of MS and show them that you don't enjoy being dropped off the support radar you've paid for....

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: drag
Of course dropping win98 support isn't all just life cycle, every thing MS does is based on marketing. Everything. People are beginning to seriously need to upgrade there computers. Most people know someone that is computer savy, so instead of going out to by new computers (that come with windows pre-packaged) they simply head down to the local computer store and get a barebones, or have their couson or son or something order parts from online places. That way they can get a new computer at maybe 70% of the price of a computer from a big store like Dell or whatnot.

And since win98 is probably still the most commonly used OS out their, many people would simply install a old copy of win98 on the new computer instead of spending the extra hundred dollors on a xp liscence.

This way by dropping support you are ensuring that win98 will no longer work with new computer parts, so they are forced to upgrade.

This is just the sort of thing that you have to expect to deal with when you deal with MS.

If you don't like it their are plenty of OSes that don't involve such tactics. For instance I use Debian. It does continous updates, I update it on a weekly bases, so I never have to worry about it becoming obsolete like win98. Gentoo is another OS that does continuous updates. Redhat can be used that way even, but they have version numbers more like traditoinal software companies.

So use your voice as a customer of MS and show them that you don't enjoy being dropped off the support radar you've paid for....

Tactics? It is good business. Get people to buy more stuff. It helps out the users too. Freeing up developers from the old cruft so they can start developing new technologies. I hate to support Microsoft, but they really have to drop dead technologies at some point. 5 years is long enough. And I am sure they would extend EOL for some customers, if they did actually psy for support for that period of time.

 

[drag]

Tactics is Tactics, it just means a series of decisions, weither it's marketing or techinical reasoning or both.

And if they realy wanted to free up developers from obsolete technologies, the first thing they should do is drop IE, and build something at least somewhat standards compliant and not have more holes in it then swiss cheese.

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

If you don't like it their are plenty of OSes that don't involve such tactics. For instance I use Debian. It does continous updates, I update it on a weekly bases, so I never have to worry about it becoming obsolete like win98. Gentoo is another OS that does continuous updates. Redhat can be used that way even, but they have version numbers more like traditoinal software companies

Um yeah...Apple has completely dropped OS9 and it will not run on any G5 machine, Yet I don't see you bitching about it. But when it comes to a Microsoft OS, you're all over it.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: mikeford
Just to be technical what I have read is that MS is dropping person to person support, ie phone calls and email replies. If they dropped all support they would be in court the next day after some new security hole shows up etc.

Why would they be in court if new security holes show up? Does their EULA guarantee lifetime support for their products? I'll find it hard to believe that it does, and it wouldn't make sense to hold them to that standard where nobody in any industry is held to that unvoluntarily.

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: GonzoDaGr8

If you don't like it their are plenty of OSes that don't involve such tactics. For instance I use Debian. It does continous updates, I update it on a weekly bases, so I never have to worry about it becoming obsolete like win98. Gentoo is another OS that does continuous updates. Redhat can be used that way even, but they have version numbers more like traditoinal software companies

Um yeah...Apple has completely dropped OS9 and it will not run on any G5 machine, Yet I don't see you bitching about it. But when it comes to a Microsoft OS, you're all over it.

Maybe your right. (it's obvious I am biased, but with good reason to be.)

But it's hardly a parrellel, the G5 is a new platform, like x86-64 vs x86-32.

I wouldn't blame Microsoft if they didn't port win98 over to x86-64, in fact I would think it would of been retarded of them and pointless. But OS 9 still worked just fine on the newest G4's, which is a something you can't say about x86 and Win98.

In fact for the lifespan of OS X on the G4 they gave you a free copy of OS 9 when you bought OS X for using legacy applications thru classic mode and dual booting.

 

[CTho9305]

You realize linux users aren't that much more helpful... you try getting support for whatever RedHat was new in 1998 and see if you get anything other than "UPGRADE" as a reply.

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: CTho9305
You realize linux users aren't that much more helpful... you try getting support for whatever RedHat was new in 1998 and see if you get anything other than "UPGRADE" as a reply.

Ya but you wouldn't have to buy a new liscence for it. Like I said before it's easily possible to continously upgrade your Linux OS, so their is realy no reason to do the "upgrade" since you will be continually upgrading. It wasn't realy possible to do this with redhat back in 1998, the technology just wasn't up their,(unless you knew what you were doing) but it's possible now.

Personally I think nobody should be using win98 any more, unless they have a VERY old computer, but it probably still the most commonly used OS out their. So if MS want's to drop support for one of their most popular products it's kinda telling what MS thinks about their customers.

 

[Sunner]

I think MS should have EOL'ed Win9x a long time ago, and I mean EOL as in "You're SOL if you run it".
There is no good reason to use them for anything but gaming nostalgica and such these days, and somehow I doubt someone setting up Win98 to run old games is gonna run it on the latest and greatest hardware, so support shouldn't be an issue.

 

[drag]

I think that they should at least still offer updates for serious security issues and such, and still have a pay-for-support. I suppose it's realy up to the hardware manufacturers to decide if they want to make drivers for it... Other then that, I couldn't give a sh*t less, even if I was still running win98.

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

But OS 9 still worked just fine on the newest G4's,

Of course it did..OS9 was designed for the G3/G4.

which is a something you can't say about x86 and Win98.

I dual boot with ME/XP on my AthlonXP 2400+ rig. Both ME AND 98SE run just fine. I only went with ME since 98 support will be waning soon, Not because I like it better than 98SE.

I wouldn't blame Microsoft if they didn't port win98 over to x86-64, in fact I would think it would of been retarded of them and pointless.

Agreed. 9x does need to go away.

Ya but you wouldn't have to buy a new liscence for it.

Only because it is free...

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: GonzoDaGr8

Ya but you wouldn't have to buy a new liscence for it.

Only because it is free...

Maybe there's hope for all you win9x users yet!

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

http://wwws.sun.com/software/solaris/images/solarisoelifecycle.gif

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

Originally posted by: drag

Originally posted by: GonzoDaGr8

Ya but you wouldn't have to buy a new liscence for it.

Only because it is free...

Maybe there's hope for all you win9x users yet!

I primarily use XP. I only use ME/9x when I have to since my scanner software is still flakey under XP. Trust me, When booting into 9x, It is not a real happy trip down memory lane.

 

[drag]

check it out here

This is the scanner software used by Linux for lots of the devices. If it's labled here under stable then you better beleive it. Then you have as a good reason to try out linux, as to use windows 9x. Plus it's stable and you don't have to worry about viruses! (just fishing, ya know)

 

[zephyrprime]

its when I start buying games or new hardware and it doesn't work with 98se

There are already things like this. It's no big deal.

But OS 9 still worked just fine on the newest G4's,

The newest G4's are old and the G5 can't run OS 9.

But it's hardly a parrellel, the G5 is a new platform, like x86-64 vs x86-32.

It's not an entirely new platform. People still expected software written for the 286 to run on a 386. The x86-64 still runs 32bit software and OS's. The 64bit sparc still runs 32bit sparc programs. Apple's backwards support for 32bit programs is particularly bad. You have to run "Classic mode"

I wouldn't blame Microsoft if they didn't port win98 over to x86-64

No need. Win98 already runs on x86-64 natively as do all 32bit programs.

 

[Nothinman]

I wish MS would drop support for all Win9X variants right now, they're a POS that need to die.

 

[yak8998]

That way they can get a new computer at maybe 70% of the price of a computer from a big store like Dell or whatnot.

Eh...MAYBE you can buy cheaper then dell if you load linux, but i dunno 70%?

And its not marketing I don't think, marketing is all the other crap they pull. It sucks to have to keep up support for an OS thats 5 years old, think of all the idiots calling in trying to get their radeon9800 (guessing theres no 9x drivers) to work with 98...

(PS pardon the bad english im tired)

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

Originally posted by: drag
check it out here

This is the scanner software used by Linux for lots of the devices. If it's labled here under stable then you better beleive it. Then you have as a good reason to try out linux, as to use windows 9x. Plus it's stable and you don't have to worry about viruses! (just fishing, ya know)

Thx for the link Drag. They seem to have drivers for my scanner. Would GIMP be a good replacement for Photoshop/Photodeluxe to use with it?
EDIT: Grr..After looking through the list a little slower, They don't have drivers for my scanner. :frown: Which is a Umax Astra 2100u. Oh well, Thanx anyway.