Bye, Windows 98

[cheryl52h]

I'm sorry for all the people that refuse to upgrade, but at some point software development companies HAVE to drop support for old OS's. Is there aFirefox version for MSDOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1? No, of course you don't. At some point the code base MUST drop support for the older platforms or else it becomes too much of a maintenance / test / support nightmare.

I'm sure that official support is not being dumped because of some elitist "Win9x sucks" attitude. In the long run it's good for the project.

I have been following this thread since it began.

It's not a matter of refusing to upgrade it's a choice I should make if I so choose. What is wrong with 98 if I want to use it.

The question I keep asking myself is why we let Microsoft or anyone else dictate what we use or not use in our computing life.

I would venture to say there is not one out of 1000 on these forums who hasn't had some bad things to say about Microsoft at one time another. But yet we allow them to dictate when we buy something new. May it be an OS or a new piece of hardware to support the new OS.

I would agree with most of the pros for upgrading if I were Microsoft, HP,Dell, Intel who ever. They tell us the old is no good and the new is bigger, better and more useful and we just fall over our selves to make them more money. When they think they have gotten all they can out of us they come up with something to force to buy the new and improved.

Has anyone stopped to think what the new Vista will do for MS, HP, Dell, Intell and countless others who were just waiting in the wings for MS to give them something in order for them to sell new computers, printers new processors and an other such supportive elements.

I would estimate Vista will be no less than $150.00 to $175.00 for the low end system. Now lets buy all the other hardware we will need in order to make Vista as useful as 98 is now. No less than $1000.00. Total cost $1150.00 to $1175.00 just because they want more.

Why do you think they want make anything backward compatable. It sure not because they love us so much they just want us to be happy. The underling reason, they can't make any money if they don't take advantage of our gullability

Just my thoughts.

cheryl52h

[jwh400]

Hammer2.0 Wrote:

Shining Celebi, moving to Linux is a good way of getting a state-of-the-art OS running on older hardware, I'd give it a go with your current box. I'm sure you would be pleased with a product from the *ubuntu family, I'm running it myself on everything from a PII 350 MHz to an IBM/Lenovo T60 laptop. The win32 apps I need that don't work in Wine, fortunately can be run using the now free (as in beer) VMware Server.
(I know this is probably semi-offtopic, but atleast it's in a positive spirit

I would consider it on topic Hammer and a good recommendation. There are several Linux distros that are no longer the scary concept of earlier versions. I have Ubuntu 5.2 on three computers including an ancient Toshiba laptop manufactured in 1997 using a P3, 300mhz, 170mb and a 4gb harddrive. It runs faster than the previous installs of 2000 and 98. Installation averages 30 minutes and probably the biggest leap forward with Ubuntu is the automatic configuration of your network setting. It configures and downloads any latest update before you ever reach the desktop for the first time. I'm running Firefox 1.5.0.4 on all three and am always looking forward to the next update/release. For those still using Windows 98 because of the cost of upgrading or the resource hog of a later Windows version when combined with anti-virus and anti-spyware programs running constantly, there are alternatives that are easy for the non technical user to set-up and use and be assured of compatibility with future releases of their needed apps. If a multi billion dollar corporation like Microsoft decides not to continue pouring time and money into older OS's, can we really expect Mozilla to continue?

[janeythecrazy]

you know, it's not like older versions of firefox are just going to disappear for win9x. also, it's not like microsoft is actively working on making msie7 compatible with win9x.

lastly, a lot of people here have been saying that it's best to run old software on old hardware (would you honestly even try to run vista on a pentium 166mhz machine? i dont think so..), does it make any sense at all to have the latest bleeding edge build and next major version of firefox run on an OS that is almost 10 years old?

Yes, MS delayed the EOL date for win98 by half a year because so many people were still using it, that still does not mean that it is not a nightmare to keep supporting win98 when obviously it's not feasible or possible to officially do so without spending ridiculous amounts of time and effort.

Anyone is welcome to start a third party offshoot to work on a win9x compatible build, and in fact people have been more than welcome to that idea and it's basically all laid out for anyone who wants to do that. Instead of arguing the market share of win98 and why it's great for light use, and hence we shouldn't be saying goodbye to win98 support, why not spend all that energy and time into working on said win98 compatible firefox?

[ehume]

@janeythecrazy - Well said, and probably the definitive statement on why the devs did what they did, and what people can do if they want to keep Fx up-to-date.

[douray]

...I would estimate Vista will be no less than $150.00 to $175.00 for the low end system. Now lets buy all the other hardware we will need in order to make Vista as useful as 98 is now. No less than $1000.00. Total cost $1150.00 to $1175.00 just because they want more.

That's a wonderful reason to go Linux, which is the course I think I'm going to be taking. I'm sick of all flavors of Windows, although in my personal use the old 98SE has been far more stable and reliable than XP.

There are always alternatives. Relax and don't go gray over it

[janeythecrazy]

@ehume - just rehashing pretty much everything that's been said so far. i honestly don't know why people continued arguing after cusser's first post in this thread (which would be about the 3rd or 4th post from the top) about what to do/what not to do, because what's done and what's going to happen is inevitable (and as a result..is going to happen again someday with 2k/xp) and it was pretty obvious what needed to be done from the start

[schapel]

It's not a matter of refusing to upgrade it's a choice I should make if I so choose. What is wrong with 98 if I want to use it.

Nothing at all. You're free to happily use Windows 98 and Firefox 2.x.

[BenBasson]

The question I keep asking myself is why we let Microsoft or anyone else dictate what we use or not use in our computing life.

See page 1. The source code is available and a Mozilla reviewer is happy to help anyone who wants to maintain compatibility. Feel free to volunteer. Nobody is dictating what you use. You're free to do something about it.

Why do you think they want make anything backward compatable. It sure not because they love us so much they just want us to be happy. The underling reason, they can't make any money if they don't take advantage of our gullability

I don't see how Mozilla makes any money from losing Windows 98 as a supported platform.

[gerv]

See <a href="http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/gerv/archives/2006/06/drop_windows_9xme_support.html">my blogpost</a> for the argument why.

Gerv

[schapel]

I would estimate Vista will be no less than $150.00 to $175.00 for the low end system. Now lets buy all the other hardware we will need in order to make Vista as useful as 98 is now. No less than $1000.00. Total cost $1150.00 to $1175.00 just because they want more.

In the recent Dell catalog, I see you can buy a 1.8 GHz laptop with 1 GB RAM, 40 GB hard disk, wireless card, and CD/DVD burner for $650. After Vista comes out, you should be able to buy a similar system with Vista preinstalled for a comparable price. That should be more useful than just about any Windows 98 computer is today. If you want a desktop, you don't even need to pay that much.

[cheryl52h]

Why do you think they want make anything backward compatable. It sure not because they love us so much they just want us to be happy. The underling reason, they can't make any money if they don't take advantage of our gullability

I don't think I said Mozilla was going to lose any money. But I will say they are following the heard. Like sheep blindly being lead to slaughter. What ever MS wants to do everybody follows.

If you can give me one good reason to stop support for something that works and has the hardware to support the product other than they can no longer make any money on the product.

I couldn't care less what Mozilla, MS, Dell, HP or anyone else does. For the greatest part I use Linux for most things I do anyway. It is just amazing to me why we just keep adding to their treasure chest for no good reason other than they have us brain washed. Do you really think MS is going do anything to make Vista any better for the average user than 98 was or is. Show me where XP was better, you can't, it wasn't. They don't care about you or I they are only concerned about their bottom line and when they see they can't reap any more from the old then out with the new.

End of my ranting we don't need to clutter the forum beating a dead horse with any more useless discussions.

cheryl52h

[schapel]

If you can give me one good reason to stop support for something that works and has the hardware to support the product other than they can no longer make any money on the product.

It takes resources to continue to support older operating systems. It makes the source code messier and harder to modify and it makes the download bigger. At a certain point, these costs of supporting older operating systems is not worth the benefit. Are you suggesting the Firefox should always support Windows 9x, no matter how much trouble it is?

[TheOldMan]

One more month!

Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Millennium Edition Support
ends on July 11, 2006

http://blogs.technet.com/msrc/archive/2 ... 34300.aspx

[douray]

One more month!

Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Millennium Edition Support
ends on July 11, 2006

http://blogs.technet.com/msrc/archive/2 ... 34300.aspx

It's going a month longer than I thought...I thought support was supposed to end this month.

[pikaunforgiven]

ya thats what i thought too...... oh well, you learn something every day when you dont pay attention. i thought 2k support was ending soon too, but so far i have seen updates every month.