Microsoft Throws Windows 98 Under The Bus

Mathew Everett 14 Jun, 2006 at 12:57pm ET Article published in Tech

After six long years Microsoft has finally had enough of supporting Windows 98 and is abandoning it to the hackers. In the last batch of security patches, Microsoft steadfastly refused to patch a hole in Windows 98 but did so for Windows 2000, XP and Windows server. Support for Windows 98 is suppose to run until July 11th 2006

Some of the Windows 98 users that are still out there say that Microsoft’s refusal to do so was foul play, given that support for the aging software does not officially end until July 11.

However, a spokesVole claimed that the changes needed to make the ancient OS safe would have required substantial tinkering with it and it could not be bothered.

He claimed that Windows 2000 was such a significant change in architecture from Windows 98 that applying changes could “jeopardise program compatibility”. This might be a bit odd as it has not prevented many security upgrades in the past.

Source: The Inquirer

Comments

14 Jun 2006 ~ 1:30pm Cyclonite It's about damn time...
14 Jun 2006 ~ 1:51pm Thrax I agree.
14 Jun 2006 ~ 2:37pm GHoosdum This gets two thumbs up from me!
14 Jun 2006 ~ 3:03pm RWB Does this mean the source code can be reverse engineered for others to tinker with?
14 Jun 2006 ~ 3:39pm Enverex Hmm, I still have a few friends running 98 because they can't afford to upgrade to a newer version of Windows and upgrade their machines to be able to deal with it, I just hope that malware makers have lost interest in the OS enough so that it doesn't almost instantly become a cesspool.
14 Jun 2006 ~ 3:51pm GHoosdum

Enverex wrote:

Hmm, I still have a few friends running 98 because they can't afford to upgrade to a newer version of Windows and upgrade their machines to be able to deal with it, I just hope that malware makers have lost interest in the OS enough so that it doesn't almost instantly become a cesspool.

That sounds like an opportunity to me... an opportunity for you to convince them to make the migration to Linux!
14 Jun 2006 ~ 3:59pm Enverex They don't have the time nor inclination to change to a different a certainly more challenging OS. The main issues for them as well as the time consumption of learning the new OS would be that most, if not all of their Windows software would not work (be it games or random specialised programs).
14 Jun 2006 ~ 4:47pm TheSmJ Games like what?

Its silly to expect Microsoft to go to the trouble of rebuilding the OS just because there are people out there who "can't be bothered" to learn a newer, up to date OS. Somebody call the WAAAHHHHHHHHHmbulance!

The 9x kernel is over 10 years old - what about the people still clinging to Win 3.1? Should they be given a patch for free just because they don't feel like learning something new?
14 Jun 2006 ~ 4:55pm Enverex ... at what point did I mention that they didn't wish to "learn something new"?
14 Jun 2006 ~ 7:24pm Cyclonite I don't know that he was directing his statements at you. I'm in agreement with him. Microsoft is under no obligation to support something that's nearly 8 years old just because people don't feellike upgrading. They've known this was coming for a long time.
14 Jun 2006 ~ 7:50pm TheSmJ

They don't have the time nor inclination to change to a different a certainly more challenging OS.
14 Jun 2006 ~ 9:07pm Gobbles

TheSmJ wrote:

he was refering to moving from windows to linux, not windows to windows. Windows interface has the classic theme which makes the transition from windows to windows easier to do, linux however is completely different. Having used both, windows is just easier to use.
15 Jun 2006 ~ 4:04am Enverex What Gobbles said.