Microsoft ends support...

[Geek-Squad]

I went to microsofts site today..Did a little surfing there and found this...

Effective July 11, 2006, Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Me (and their related components) will transition to a non-supported status. After this date, Microsoft will no longer provide any incident support options or security updates. Microsoft is not offering a custom support agreement for these products.

What do you guys think of this? Do you think That microsoft made a good choice by ending support? or do you think they should Keep offering them support?

[Scarecrow Man]

They should offer support for all the products they have sold. That is like selling an item and then telling the person you sold it to, that if it breaks you are not responsible.

I think that is crap.

Windows 95 was released in August 1995 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_95

Windows 98 was released in June 1998 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_98

Windows ME was released in September 2000 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_me

Windows 2000 was released in February 2000 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_2000, before Windows ME, but support is not being stopped for this product.

It is obvious they are not going by age.

[Geek-Squad]

Lol..I say the systems are too old though...

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

They should offer support for all the products they have sold. That is like selling an item and then telling the person you sold it to, that if it breaks you are not responsible.

I think that is crap.

Windows 95 was released in August 1995 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_95

Windows 98 was released in June 1998 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_98

Windows ME was released in September 2000 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_me

Windows 2000 was released in February 2000 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_2000, before Windows ME, but support is not being stopped for this product.

It is obvious they are not going by age.

No, they are not ending support by age, but by technology.

I disagree with you that they should continue to support everything they have ever sold - no-one can do that. Should they still support Windows 3.1? Should they still support MS-DOS?

The Win9x technology has come to an end, and that includes ME.

I know that there are still countless Win98 users out there, but they know their system well, and they have probably reinstalled Win98 dozens of times over the 8 years since its release. They will have to rely on 3rd-party products for protection.

Remember when Win95 was released, it came without a web browser? You had to buy Netscape if you wanted to surf the barely existing web. The computing world has changed a great deal since then; today's threats were unimaginable then, and were just beginning when Win98 was released.

In today's world we need today's technology to deal with today's threats. It simply won't do to patch decade-old technology.

Just my ¥2 worth of thought :)

[Tony]

I agree with you Pat.

Tony

[andsome]

When I visited the Symantec site last year to renew my subscription to Norton 2003, I was told that I could pay for future AV updates, but would no longer qualify for support. That is for a product two years old. A damned site worse than the Microsoft decision. I ditched Norton and bought Nod 32.

[CurlyWhirly]

I used to have Windows ME as an operating system when I first had a PC and I agree with the following comment from the Windows ME link:

Criticism

Many users were generally unimpressed with Windows Me, due to its stability issues.

I was one of those users and I was so frustrated by it that I upgraded to XP and I am very glad I did as it has proved to be much more stable than ME ever was!

In today's world we need today's technology to deal with today's threats. It simply won't do to patch decade-old technology.

I totally agree.

I mean XP Home will only be supported until the end of 2008 which isn't bad as it is over 7 years worth of support.

I don't blame Microsoft for ending support for Windows 95 as it is over a decade old :0

[Belatucadrus]

I'm not bothered, I've never used Microsoft technical support and by far the majority of the security updates are to plug holes in IE6 or Media player. Seems an eminently sensible reason to dump both and use Firefox and jetAudio

[-pops-]

I have been involved in computers and computing, one way or another, for a very long time - way before Bill Gates was on the scene.

I have never used Microsoft support and I don't know anyone who has either.

Is it such a big deal the support for aged dinosaur operating systems that hardly anyone uses is being ended? People that are still using these ancient (in computer terms) systems know sufficient about them to be able to effect any repairs or tweaks on their own. If they can't repair, they can re-install which they have no doubt done countless times previously.

As for virus writers, they aren't interested. A virus writer want his "talents" to be known to as wide an audience as possible so he/she is not going to bother wasting time creating code for these (now) little used systems (this is the reason, by the way that Mac and Linux etc. are considered less prone to viruses - not because they are intrinsically more secure but because of the reduced popularity, hence lower usage, of the systems and the malware writers not bothering.)

[scuzzman]

Lol..I say the systems are too old though...

While I agree that DOS is a dead technology, the truth stands that a large percentage of users are still running Windows 98/Me systems. They should continue to be supported until this percentage goes down. But, realise what I mean when I say support. I don't mean technical support (as MS's tech support is horrid and incompentent), but instead I am (and they are) referring to non-critical updates to the OS (such as the WMF exploit).

That said, Win2kPro is the best thing to ever have come out of Redmond, WA, and is by no means a dead technology (it's the basis of WinXP and all its current successors including Vista).