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Windows 98 Phased Out
Via_Patrino writes "According to Microsoft on january 16, MS Windows 98 and 98se will end Extended Support Phase, that means they'll became obsolete and assisted support will no longer be available from Microsoft, affecting about 27% of the internet users. That means even if 98 is working well for your needs (and especially computer specifications) and you want to pay for support (because that might cost less than switching hardware) you can't, because who will be able to patch eventual new bugs (security related or not) besides Microsoft? So if you're not planning a switch it might be your last opportunity to update MS Windows 98, after that some software might disappear from MS website (just like MSIE 5.5 for 95 did)."
Before people panic in the streets, it should be made clear that MS still plans to patch vulnerabilities in Win98. Hopefully this means people will keep using Windows Update to keep their system as risk free (from viruses, trojans, etc.) as reasonably possible. (Besides using things like virus scanners and anti-spyware tools, of course!)
-Teckla
how about people, like myself, that have hardware that will NOT run anything after Win98? I have a p133 laptop that I use for web, email, etc, that cannot run Win2k (it gets to the text boot screen and freezes).
Looks like MS is forcing me to upgrade my hardware too? Not cool.
That does not mean anything - many niche OS users keep their niche browsers identyfying as "Microsoft Explorer for Windows" just to fool javascript websites that display the stupid "If you don't have MSIE, you can't access us, goodbye" messages. Even my Safari identifies itself as MSIE 6.0, otherwise my damned bank wouldn't let me check my own bloody account.
what about us MS DOS users?
If any of the free *nix operating systems (Linux, FreeBSD) do not fit your needs - you should consider sidegrading over to FreeDOS when MS-DOS becomes more of a hassle than it's worth. Not only is FreeDOS being actively fixed and maintained, but you can also get the source code to fix and add features yourself if you want.
Check the todo list for what they've not yet got finished in their run up to a 1.0 release.
The redhat's that you are talking about are the consumer ones, not enterprise ones. I doubt much of the consumer redhat stuff is used much or at all. Patches, bugfixes, software manuals, etc, will still be available (7.3 manual is still available). You just won't necessarily be able to get phone support, but I doubt that is used much anyways (correct me if I'm wrong).
Enterprise versions are still supported. RedHat consumer was mostly meant to be a "you want linux easy, here it is, have fun" type thing. Patches, etc will still be available, and I'll bet up2date will still work.
I love OS X myself, but I still have to say you're off base a bit on '98. The nice thing about Win '98 is MS had the product out for so long, they did quite a few revisions to it, improving things like USB support and networking capabilities. The original '98 release might not have been spectacular, but most people I know found that '98 "Second Edition" was about as good as Windows ever got, before changing to the NT-based design found in 2000 and XP.
When they did the Windows Millenium version, THAT'S where they really blew it. All they did was add fluff, plus a half-broken system to roll-back to previous system states that ends up slowing the whole thing down.
I don't know how you can claim Windows '95 was superior to '98, when it lacked USB support completely, had very little native device driver support by comparison, didn't support Internet Connection Sharing or even support for internal ISDN modems (no native support for bonding multiple 64K "B" data channels together), and a slew of other things.
Why does everyone make a big stink and bi0tch at Microsoft for doing something like this? Very few companies provide any support at all for old versions of products. Many will cease support old versions the very instant a new version comes out, and will tell its users to upgrade to the newest version if they want support.
Microsoft, on the other hand, provides support for it's software for five (?) years, even after it's been succeeded by Windows 2000/XP!
For older hardware, this is not an option as winxp requires far more resources than win98.
I have a dell laptop. It's a 300mhz pentium 2 and had 128 megs of RAM in it, and it ran windows 98... poorly. So I put 256 more megs of PC100 RAM in (that's what it takes... total cost: $20 on sale at the wiz closing event) and installed XP. Then I turned off eye candy. Now it runs beautifully.
...and that's all there is to it.
No, because redhat is open source he does have an argument.
unofficial redhat patches nr. 1
unofficial redhat patches nr. 2
Now, where are those unofficial windows patches?
"We use win98 because its NOT a multi user operating system."
Sorry to oversimplify here, but I do not understand. Why not just turn on the "log-in automatically" feature?
If it ain't broke, don't go fixing it now. Just saying your argument caused a question mark to materialize over my head.
"Derp de derp."
and some of the kids games didn't work on XP
I've found a lot of the problems with kids games are just that the authors wrote the game to panic and scream "AHHHH NOOOOO!" if you attempt to install it on an NT system (which XP is after all). I've just used compatibility mode to trick it into thinking its on 98 and all is well.
...and that's all there is to it.
Wasn't the an article posted within the last month? This is a way to force corporate desktops into XP or 2k. That's where the real money is anyway. Mom and Pop pay once for the os, the business world has MIS depts or pays support. Great way to insure migration.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B - D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
Many independent websites -- such as mine -- keep downloads such as those. http://www.oldos.org
Jason Faulkner
Old Os Administrator
jason@oldos.org
oldos.
Even if 500,000 people figured out how to do this, it would still not count for 1% of Internet users.
Life in Orange County
It would be helpful if you posted a list of what you used your computer for. If it is surfing the 'net, writing simple word docs, etc, you can probably use Linux to accomplish the same tasks, and have it supported.
The more you know, the less you understand.
How old?
I happily had XP running on my Dual PII 350@400 (only one PII 350 in some cases).
And that was with FULL visual effects etc.
From MSDN Subscriber downloads:
Looking for older versions of IE for your older machines? Check out evolt's archive of old broswers. They even have 16-bit versions of Netscape and IE.
Using the Windows Update Catalog. Go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com , and click "About Windows Update" and read the instructions for how to get to the catalog and use it.
according to this article, retiring Win98 is to comply with a court order in regard to java. NS is retiring older products because it isn't worth the hassle to update them to comply with the court order. If you want to blame someone because Win98 is being retired, blame Sun and the US court system, not MS.
Vote for Pedro
Windows 2000 won't play my games
For those who can't get old games to work on Windows 2000, you can use the ACT. I was frustrated that I couldn't run games like TIE Fighter and X-Wing on Win2k, but this program seems to emulate 95/98 so they magically work. I don't know if it works with everything, but it's at least a start.
Um, no. Linux requires a 386 or greater on x86 and always has.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
Use PortTalk to access ports directly.
http://www.beyondlogic.org/porttalk/porttalk.htm
This is Microsoft's description from their Windows 98 Downloads page:
Download 'em all before January 16, them burn 'em onto a CD. We just don't know how long those updates will be available.Just because you might drive a 57 Chevy does NOT mean Chevrolet should still provide new parts for that car. If you really want to keep that car, then your only choice is to go with aftermarket parts (Linux as an OS for the PC) and/or parts from a junk yard or bought directly from someone else (EBay and computer swap meets)
Of course, it would just be more cost effective to buy a new car that comes backed by a warrenty. A shiny new PC with XP in this case from Dell.
Seriously, why should MS be forced to support there older software for as long as they do. I would say they are being more then fair about it with ample warning ahead of time. I doubt you can say the same thing for Apple. They are notorious for leaving their users high and dry when it comes to support after a few years of Mac ownership.
Life is not for the lazy.
first, get a copy of the xp pro cd. Dont worry if you dont have a cd key.
second, download
this
and run it on a fairly fast computer. Set it for windows xp corporate, find key, and the number of searches to 100. Let it run for an hour or two, and it should find you at least one working cd key. The cd key produced disables the bullshit activation. I've personally have tested this and it works wonders.
For the whiners who will scream piracy.....this has ABSOLUTELY legitimate uses for people who legally own win xp and dont want to have deal with M$ bullshit activation. Its really no different then bypassing css on a dvd you own.
Lawyers, MBA's, RIAA? A jedi fears not these things!
Also, cant you just make an NT/W2K/XP machine login as a specified user (like generic_student) on boot, anyway? My roommates XP machine doesnt make him login at all.
In XP, if u only have 1 account it won't ask for a login or password however if you go into User Accounts in Control Panel and turn off the Welcome screen it will start to prompt for a username and password. As soon as you have multiple accounts defined though (and the Welcom screen turned on) it will list the available user IDs but a user must still choose the desired userID and enter the correct password. For win2k you can tell it to (during installation) to always sign on with the account you created during installation (I would assume that setting is hidden somewhere in the registry so you could modify it later if you wanted, like if you had previously told it to always prompt for a login.)
this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
show me a system running the linux kernel without at least most of the following, in alphabetical order: autoconf, automake, bash, binutils, bison, coreutils, diffutils, file, findutils, flex, gawk, gcc, gettext, glibc, grep, groff, grub, gzip, less, m4, make, man, ncurses, patch, sed, shadow, and tar.
This is just for a basic, bootable system. I just don't get you ungrateful RMS haters out there. If you don't like to admit that 90% of the base system is GNU, then don't use it!
Jeremy
When was the last time a 2.0 series kernel was released with a new patch?
You also don't have to _PAY_ to upgrade to a 2.4 or 2.6 series kernel...
If you satisfy the following two conditions, UMBPCI will easily cream QEMM, EMM386, or any other DOS memory manager:
1. You do not need expanded memory (EMS)
2. Your hardware is supported (usually not a problem except with the newest hardware)
Although you're being funny, we both know the nerdly joy of bleeding that extra 800 bytes into conventional memory.
Windows NT 3.51 Service Packs
TCP/IP for Windows for Workgroups 3.11
WfW 3.11 SMB fix for Samba smbclient
I mean, what more do you want? I know I know, the source. But Microsoft has a history of supporting their products for a very long time, and continuing to host updates for their old products, they're freely available without even logging in.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
It might not be a wonderful architecture but this idiocy that it's just a GUI shell has to be called out.
When you have driver troubles, BSOD and spyware, in most cases a full reinstall of Windows fixes it. Theres little else you can do with a trashed Windows98 install since it doesnt really give processes their own closed space like Windows2000 and any other REAL OS.
So would you want to pay Microsoft for solutions they dont provide?
As an operating system after some 7 years (it came out first in 97), its pretty mature and most major fixable bugs have been fixed, and its unlikely in the next 3 years people will NEED a new version of IE or libraries. If they do anyway, any support for WindowsME will also likely work on Windows98, like most drivers made for WinME.
I believe Windows 2000 is mature enough now for people to switch away from Windows98, after Service Pack 4. I also support XP as a usable OS now, after Service Pack 2, but for most cases where stability is required, I go with Windows2000. A cheap ECS computer with a Duron 1.4GHz can easily run Windows 2000/XP so I wouldnt consider hardware to be the problem for switching.
For older hardware, this is good news. People will finally HAVE to use Linux and the likes. For cheaper hardware and poorer countries, Microsoft is actually shooting themselves in the foot.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
have you tried doing this ?
OBD-II only has a "Base" set of codes that are common to all cars. It's sort of like SNMP where anyone can go and define their own MIBs as long as they're in the right form. The difference is, if you want he VW proprietary codes or functions, you cant do it with a generic tool, you need a special one.
I'm guessing you've never actually tried this - a bill was just passed forcing auto makers to open up the diagnostic tools/info they have to independant mechanics. If you wanted to do some basic types of operations on a BMW, for instance, there are a few different machines you need.. a DIS.. a MODIC, etc. These are like 5-digit cost custom computers that knowhow to do things like reprogram the key to match the ECU, tell the car that its OK that it has a different engine than the one its expecting, etc etc.
_Every_ current car has something in it that can only be repaired at the dealership right now.
My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.