Retired Microsoft Operating Systems Still Popular

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "Despite Microsoft's recent retirement of Windows 98, News.com reports that many users continue to cling to the company's older operating systems. The study cited in the article suggests that 80 percent of companies still have machines operating on Windows 95 or 98. While Windows 2000 was the most common OS in the study, just 6.6 percent of the desktop machines included in the survey were running Windows XP." The results aren't too surprising. I get a lot of user mail from Netscape 4 users, and it only makes sense that they're running it somewhere.

Comments

Windows 98

[Anonymous Coward]

I still use it for my kids games and educational software....the newer ones DON'T WORK...hmmmmm

Re:Windows 98

[lordDallan]

Check out the system requirements on those kids games and educational software, there's a good chance they'll run on a Mac. You can buy a refurbished eMac for as little as $529.00 from the Apple Store. This let's you have the benefits of a new, stable, secure OS, avoid MS Taxes, and use your old software.

And unlike M$, Apple has very strong support for those old programs in their new OS (via Classic mode in "OS X").

Plus, if you buy a new Mac, odds are it will run any older "win95/98 only" educational software just fine in Virtual PC (note-Virtual PC does not currently work with G5s).

I also find Virtual PC really useful for testing software I've written on older OSs. I also find I HAVE TO build some software (for win95 especially) in Virtual PC running the target OS or there end up being all kinds of .dll incompatibility problems (double-especially if Windows Media Player is involved).

Re:Companies are better off than schools.

[taj]

The Apple II C's may be perfectly fine for a high school physics lab. The MECC (Minnesota Educational Computer Consortium) produced hundreds of programs for the Apple II C that probably still have use.

A poor mechanic blames his tools.

Re:Windows 3.1

[f1ipf10p]

MS OS/2 1.0 was not EOL.

It was abandoned by MS at 1.2 so that 3COM's 3+Open and IBM's PC Server OS's that built on top of it would have to react and lose market share.

MS was in an agreement with IBM and 3COM that allowed them to take advantage of the developments of the other two while leaving them in the cold. IBM tried to pick up development of OS/2 (including WARP), but that is a different story.

NT, Win2K, and XP all use the "net xxx" commands that were the heart of 3COM's OS even before the "alliance" with Microsoft. I think this is why Bob Metcalfe seems to hate Gates with such a passion.

"Come into my den said the spider to the fly."

Re:Companies are better off than schools.

[barzok]

Find a used PC store in your area (there's at least one in most cities) or even get chummy with the proprietors of the "independent" computer shops. They typically have older systems for around $200 including monitor. If you're buying a couple systems, they may cut you a no-monitor deal.

Re:NT popular in the enterprise

[afidel]

With 192MB of ram or more Win2k will run fine on a P2-300. I ran it on a desktop with a P2-233 w/ 256MB and a laptop with a P2-266 and 192MB for several years at my last employer. Sure there were times when running the bloated Java frontend to Remedy that I would have liked a little beefier machine, but for 99+% of what I did it was fine.

Re:The thing I always wondered is

[Have Blue]

It may be the same as abandonware, but that doesn't mean you can copy it. Abandonware is still copyright violation, just with a different justification from normal warez.

WPA, eye candy and spyware--not worth it.

[acceleriter]

My employer is an OEM customer. The other day, a programmer's machine with the volume license version of XP started whining that it couldn't verify the activation or some such. Since it thought it was an infringing copy, it logged him off each time he would log on. The MS Premier resolution? Reinstall. So 1 FTE's time is wasted while this is done. Lower TCO my ass.

Had the organization stayed with Win2K, this never would have come up.

Realistically, Windows 98 is probably the last version of Windows that can be reasonably kept from calling home, and has a higher probability of not having some kind of government back door. You think MS got a slap on the wrist in the antitrust action for free?

Re:Another reason to run Windows 95

[Lumpy]

The biggest problem is the ram.

if you would ahve installed vector linux it would have downright screamed and MozillaFirebird would work great if you had 128 meg of ram.

I have 5 machines I have given to friends that are P166MMX and it is very VERY useable with Vector linux.

Wordprocessor is ABI word.. which is 9000% faster than open office.

Spreadsheet is Gnumeric, and it also is a billion times faster than Open office.

you have a choice of about 4 built in tight window managers and you can install gnome or KDE is you desire.

Give it a try.... Vector Linux. it is pretty impressive that they can take the fastest distro- slackware and make it faster and add a "apt" style of installer but is GUI based.

Actually it's more straightforward than that.

[Stormbringer]

This came out in the "anti-trust" trial, remember?

Windows is supposed to run slower with each new version, so you will have to buy current hardware to run it, at new-technology prices, so that the cost of the Windows OS, as a proportion of the total price of the delivered computer, will stay below a level they figured is likely to trigger a consumer revolt.

There's nothing accidental about it.

Re:Original CD prices going up!

[_|()|\|]

Give your customers crappy features like DRM, and they'll find a way to tel you they're not interested... like back-grading to your previous versions.

I took advantage of the Windows XP Pro downgrade rights to run Windows 2000:

PCs licensed for Windows XP Professional OEM are licensed to use identified previous versions of Windows Operating System Product(s) in lieu of Windows XP Professional (Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional, Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 or Microsoft Windows 98 (Second Edition).

I still think Windows 98 SE is preferable for games, but I don't miss it too much.