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Microsoft Extends Win98/SE Support

Posted by Hemos on from the expanding-it-out dept.

An anonymous reader writes "ZDNet reports that Microsoft is extending technical support for Windows 98 till 30 June 2006, despite being days away from switching support to a CD. It seems Windows 98 will also have all necessary security updates till the new expiry date." The article states that Microsoft will have "...During that time paid over-the-phone support will be available, and "critical" security issues will be reviewed and "appropriate steps" taken."

25 of 415 comments (clear)

  1. Heh by Xpilot · · Score: 5, Funny

    Having to support their own old buggy products are their biggest liability. Popularity does have its downside.

    --
    "Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it." -- Linus Torvalds
    1. Re:Heh by NanoGator · · Score: 5, Funny

      Microsoft is dropping support for Windows 98/SE. Lots of people still use it! Pitchforks ready!!!

      Microsoft is renewing support for Windows 98/SE. Those damn buggy insecure products will never die! Pitchforks ready!!

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    2. Re:Heh by Peale · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hey, it's good news to me. I sell pitchforks.

  2. Sadly Enough by j0keralpha · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Corporate usage of this OS is still widespread, mainly due to inertia more than anything else. Microsoft is desperately trying to get companies to switch, but getting Officer Level peeps to understand the inherent benefits is proving to be... difficult...

    1. Re:Sadly Enough by GeckoFood · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Corporate usage of this OS is still widespread...

      Not just in the office, but the home user market still has a huge installed base for Win98. To completely drop Win98 would further anger a large number of customers. I am no fan of Microsoft, but I would have to say that keeping support alive for another couple of years if a wise choice if they don't want to further upset their customers.

      Some will leave Microsoft anyway, and that's unavoidable. However, this way they have time to evaluate a little better what transition to make. Microsoft will of course hope that they will all go for XP or whatever is next.

      --
      Be excellent to each other. And... PARTY ON, DUDES!
    2. Re:Sadly Enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It isn't inertia, it's ROI. I'd bet you a million dollars that if you magically and seamlessly transformed every Windows 98 corporate installation into 2003 or XP Pro today, that by the end of the year revenues would not be affected... at least not positively.

      Corporate change requires urgency-borne motivation. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" may be a highly ironic cliche to wield when discussing Windows 98, but it's the fundamental reason for upgrade lag.

    3. Re:Sadly Enough by inkedmn · · Score: 5, Informative

      It only makes sense that 98 is still widely used, as upgrading to 2K/XP costs more than my mother-in-law is willing to spend on the stuff that lets her read her email...
      I ran 98SE for *years* before switching to Linux, and for John Q. Homeuser who has AOL and doesn't use the internet for anything more than checking local movie start times and ordering flowers for his wife's birthday, it's enough.

      --
      well, it's nothing one behind the ear wouldn't cure
    4. Re:Sadly Enough by zerocool^ · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well I think MS realizes that if they start a push towards upgrades there is the possibility that the fees involved might push the coporates to free alternatives... Maybe by pushing for upgrades only with Office and backend items they can leave 98 on the desktops and save themselves from companies going with a mass conversion to Linux?

      :%s/MS/RedHat/g

      How is it that the devil can decide to extend the end-of-life of a 6 year old operating system for another 2 years, and yet we blast them for not thinking of it earlier and point out how many would have been burned by this abandonment, yet Our Neighborhood Hero decides to end-of-life an operating system that's slightly more than a year old, which many people just adopted, and which they didn't even have to write, just published, and we forgive them their tresspasses and blame it on the economy or whatever?

      I'd say that the end of life of redhat 7.3 and 9 is going to hit me much harder than the end of life of Windows98. My customers, too.

      But, whatever, go ahead and tell me how extending the life of an essentially dead OS just barely saved them in the zero hour from a mass exodus to linux, even though the historically most-popular linux distro wants to charge people almost twice the amount - per year - that windows costs in a one time charge (that includes, appearantly, 6 years of updates). Oh, and that verson of linux only comes with... wait for it... zero hours of tech support, and.... quarterly updates and... in downloadable format, with no physical media!

      Tell them what they've won, Bob!
      Well, Johnny, today's contestants will receive a lifetime supply of "Microsoft is not stupid", in addition to a chance to appear on the lightning round "Companies that can do no good versus companies that can do no evil". Runners up will receive Rice-A-Roni, the san francisco treat.

      ~Will

      --
      sig?
    5. Re:Sadly Enough by Trurl's+Machine · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not just in the office, but the home user market still has a huge installed base for Win98. To completely drop Win98 would further anger a large number of customers. I am no fan of Microsoft, but I would have to say that keeping support alive for another couple of years if a wise choice if they don't want to further upset their customers.

      On the other hand, people who bought your product once in last century and do not plan to buy another in next two years... are not exactly the kind of customer base you proudly display on shareholders meeting. Looks like Microsoft has reached a dead-end. They don't know how to persuade their user base to upgrade - but they cannot make them do it by enforcing it. From the Microsoft's point of view, people running Win 98 are almost as evil as people running Linux - one way or another, they don't buy Win XP.

    6. Re:Sadly Enough by JediTrainer · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It only makes sense that 98 is still widely used, as upgrading to 2K/XP costs more than my mother-in-law is willing to spend on the stuff that lets her read her email...

      Ok, I confess...

      I'M still running 98SE on my home machine. Yes, still. I dual-boot with Linux, of course, but in order to use the VPN software my company provides (no, our VPN is not IPSEC unfortunately), I need Windows. And Outlook so I can get my email.

      Why haven't I upgraded? Because it's good enough. I don't want to give MS any more of my money, where I trade a working OS with bugs I'm now fairly familiar with for a new OS that's going to cost me more money and give me little benefit.

      If it ain't broke...

      --

      You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
  3. I am actually impressed... by garcia · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Wow. MS has really been listening to users recently... This particular move came even faster than the idea to include a more configurable firewall and popup blocking! I am actually quite impressed. Perhaps they are learning THIS from Linux? Listen to your users and make changes quickly to fit what they want and need?

    At first you would think that they would want to "force" users to upgrade to XP/beyond but they realized that it probably will not happen for most users that are still running 98. If you can't beat them join them?

    Being a recent re-convert from Linux back to Windows (still use Linux for a lot but Windows solely for "desktop stuff") I am glad to see that it was worth paying the "MS tax" on the new computers I recently purchased.

    Just my worthless babbling,

  4. Red Hat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yet "Red Hat will discontinue maintenance and errata support for Red Hat Linux 9 as of April 30, 2004"

    Someone, quick, find out how this makes Microsoft... bad and Red Hat... good....?!

  5. Error in ZDNet article. by Threni · · Score: 5, Informative

    Even if support had been switched to a CD, MS had still pledged to provide security related fixes, AFAIK.

  6. Hey! by freeze128 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Where is my Windows *95* support CD?

    1. Re:Hey! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      right next to my DOS 3.2 support floppy.

  7. Heh by ArmenTanzarian · · Score: 5, Funny

    I actually helped two people switch from 98 this week. They both started over the phone almost identically.

    Friend(s): I can't make a boot disk, it doesn't recognize the drive anymore.
    Me: You have to go into the BIOS, change the boot order and pop in a cd.
    Friend(s): The what-os?
    Me: I'm on my way.

    These aren't dumb people, but I installed their OS's and now they think they can't handle it on their parents' computers. I do like impressing people with simple things though, like showing my nephew a yo-yo for the first time.

  8. Security? by Shakey_Jake33 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Perhaps MS is trying to look at the big picture? I mean, like it or not, a large amount of internet users, especially coperate and home users who see little reason to upgrade from their 200's, are still using Windows 98. And rightly so from their perspective. Many people just want to use the internet, do a bit of word processing now and then and so-on, and from their perspective, there is little reason to move OS, or even upgrade computer. And with such a large amount of internet users still on this OS, maybe MS saw that keeping this secure is a near-requirement? I'm sure MS would love everyone to move to XP, but I'm sure even they know that that's not happening.

  9. Longhorn release date? by Dreadlord · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I wonder if it has anything to do with longhorn release date, which is supposed to be released in 2006, or maybe they've found that they won't be able to release longhorn in 2006, so decided to extend their old OS's support?

    --
    The IT section color scheme sucks.
  10. Re:Almost 10 years of a crappy OS by mhesseltine · · Score: 5, Insightful
    • Because if it isn't broken, it doesn't need fixed.
    • Because it saves money by not spending it on unneccesary hardware/software upgrades.
    • Because I don't want to give Microsoft any more money than I have to.
    • Because I'm working on transitioning to Linux desktops, but still have a couple of sticking points.

    Other than that, no reason.

    --
    Overrated / Underrated : Moderation :: Anonymous Coward : Posting
  11. This is bad for Microsoft by Synesthesiatic · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The holdouts are really squeezing a lot out of Microsoft

    This may have been a nice thing to do, but it's a bad business move IMHO. Companies still using Windows 98 have been shown that if they're stubborn enough, they'll get their way. Not only did Microsoft lose out on the Windows 2000/XP licenses they would've bought, they have to continue to pay to patch up the old workhorse.

    A similar thing happened with NT 4, although Microsoft didn't give in. I think they'll have a hell of a time when it comes time to EOL Windows 2000.

  12. Repackage and Sell Again by JoeCommodore · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think they should try and clean it up an then start selling it as "Windows Classic" for whatever faults it has is has been an extremely popular OS for the consumer market.

    --
    "Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
  13. That is a long, long period of support by ChrisWong · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Continued security updates for ... 8 years? You will be lucky get 8 months from Fedora. Somebody please point me to a Linux distribution that offers that duration of support at any price. Wow.

  14. Other countries out there by aml666 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I do some projects with companies in other countries (Venezuela, Brazil, ...). I have yet to do business with a company that has an OS later than Windows 98. These poorer countries/businesses(US as well) simply can't afford to upgrade. Unlike most "consumer-minded" Americans, there are a lot of people out there who actually can not see any benefit in upgrading from an OS that does what they need.

    Windows 98 works fro most small business needs (especially if they are not on the internet). I believe that this also applies to Office 97. I still use Office 2000 and OpenOffice.

    --
    www.thejulingtoncreekplantaion.com
  15. Jumping to Linux. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My previous computer (450Mhz PIII with 64MB ram) was a Windows 98 machine. I was fed up Windows Failing me, and with Windows XP out (no way was it going to run on my machine) and MS trying to make me switch, so I switched, to Mandrake Linux in December 2001. I kept windows on there until April 2002 for the transition period though.

    KDE 2.2 was a lot better than the Windows 98 desktop and thanks to Wine I got my legacy applications working and I was incredibly happy.

    Now Ive got my new computer with SuSE 9.0 (1666Mhz with 768 Mb RAM), I won't ever want to go back to Windows if they paid me. Still I know two freinds still on Windows 9x, both with older machines, (233mhz with 32Mb RAM and 800mhz with 64Mb ram) Should I convince them to switch or convince them to get a new computer?

  16. Re:Well I still use Win98 by locknloll · · Score: 5, Insightful

    2) The system runs fairly stable (not quite as stable as XP, but I crash maybe 1x per week).

    Note how Windows has changed our way of looking at computer systems & technology in general - something that only breaks down about once a week is considered fairly stable. Makes me shiver...

    --
    -- Power corrupts, but PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.