Windows 98, 98SE and ME: Information about Support Lifecycle and MS06-015
Posted on June 9th, 2006 by LizFrom the Microsoft Security Response Center Blog:
“I wanted to take a moment and mention a couple of things related to security updates and Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition (SE), and Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (ME).
First, support for Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Millennium Edition (Me) ends on July 11, 2006, which is the July 2006 Monthly Bulletin Release date. This means Microsoft will end public and technical support on July 11, 2006. This also includes security updates. As an advance reminder, Windows XP SP1 will also reach a similar end of support date on October 10, 2006. There’s more detail about this and other Support Lifecycle dates on the Support Lifecycle Website: http://www.microsoft.com/lifecycle.”\
So what this really means is: Get rid of your Windows 98 machines because they are so broken and vulerable to today’s internet threats that even Microsoft won’t support them. Do your tech folks a favor and either plan to upgrade or replace those old broken computers you’ve got around.
Comment By: gerry
June 10th, 2006 at 6:16 am
Just because the hardware is old and running badly does not imply the legacy hardware is broken.
It implies the running operating system has a very poor performance/use-time ratio. Which is a typical windows ploy/problem.
If you use an open source operating system you can receive community support until the end of time. If it works there may be no point upgrading to something just because it’s shiny.
Microsoft relies on consumer boredom with the flaws in it’s current products to provide the impetus for them to upgrade to the new ones. Alas, we all know those flaws will be replaced with new, more impressive ones.
Comment By: Liz
June 22nd, 2006 at 1:06 pm
Oh, I agree with you completely here… the real problem with OSS is that library patrons often don’t know what the hell to do with it… it doesn’t look like or work like what they’re used to (“Where’s the big blue internet button?”) and for many of them, change/something different is scary.
Our purpose is to serve our patrons, and part of that service is to provide them with technology that they can actually feel comfortable using and that has the best chance of being able to do the tasks that they want to do with a minimum of hassle. Right now, everyone feels varying degrees of comfort with Windows, so that’s what we use.
Now, reusing those old boxes for things like wireless access splash pages or hosting the community wiki… I’m all about that kind of use for old library hardware. But there again, it takes someone comfortable with those OSS technologies to get those projects implemented. Right now, those people are pretty scarce in our neck of the woods.