Windows 98's demise causes concern

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Microsoft customers and security experts have reported that the decision by the software giant to end support for Windows 98 could pose significant security challenges for many users.

[blockquote]On December 8, Microsoft announced its intention to halt further distribution of Windows 98, with the exception of Windows 98 Second Edition, by the end of this month. The move is being made to comply with a legal settlement with Sun Microsystems over a dispute about the Java programming language.

Just days after that announcement, industry experts warned that the operating system is still widely used within organizations. If Microsoft keeps its promise to stop issuing security patches in January, prompting companies worldwide to weigh costly jumps to newer Windows versions, those companies will face serious challenges, experts say.
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[link=http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,113893,00.asp]Read more[/link]

Geeky1

Windows 98 itself is a "significant security challenge"

Microsoft themselves have admitted that Win9x (95, 95 OSR2, 98, 98SE, ME) are inherently insecure OSes, and no amount of patching will make them secure.

So, if you run one of those OSes, and you want security, the obvious thing to do is get 2k or XP.

profdlp

I'm not a Microsoft basher, but does anyone else suspect that they came out of the settlement hearing thinking "Gee, what a shame that so many of our loyal customers are going to have to upgrade sooner than they may have wanted to?"

Crying all the way to the bank... :bawling: $$$ :bawling:

Of course, they could have just patched W98 to eliminate MSJava.

Garg

I think Prof's totally right. Why fix it when you can make someone buy it all over again? The same kind of thing has happened to me with hardware that's not supported by drivers in 2k or XP, and with software that won't run in XP (whatever version of NAV I was running when I upgraded the first time).

Straight_Man

Um, problem is, the Java VM was core of session management between apps and core parts of O\S, adn balance between needs of both. Original NTKERN fought the VMs tried before the Java VM was adopted as best solution. To rewrite that part had so any other rewrite needs that became evident, that it became a complete O\S core rewrite, so they DID rewrite-- result WAS Win2K, and then an NTKERN and NTKERN compliant core rework to get things running better had us looking at XP with lots of legacy bugs from earlier O\Ss, especially in 98 and up through Me.

Yes, problem is the legacy bugs, and core of XP is better and will result in a better Longhorn. Free support cannot pay for thousands of man-hours of work, so Microsoft would go broke applying backward patches to 98 as the whole underlying core would end up loking like (um) XP to run newer software.

When 98 was written, the things that are now seen as major simply were not known or discussed except among folks who kept silent about them in the public eye because there were no known fixes at that time. Publicity and vociferous publicity about security, and spread of publkic knowledge of how bugs can be exploited has resulted in code that is somewhat better in many ways. What I do not like is the extra glitz, it grabs resources that could be used for work, but I am an older guy who uses the computer more as a work tool and less as an intertainment thing, so am not criticizing your like of glitz, simply saying that what you use for fun, I enjoy doing for work.

John-- who has suspended arguement of 98 being good for work as he found that running modern stuff with wanted features has overloaded best VM machine he can get to run in 98. Thus, my Barton box now runs XP Pro, legally.

profdlp

You raise some good points, John. As an alternative to countless upgrades and support for an OS whose days are numbered anyway, they could have at least paid off Sun to license Java for another year or two.

Either way, I've been impressed with XP. This was after being a big fan of 98se.