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Thread ID: 14735 2002-01-17 06:37:00 windows98 is dead...long live windows 98 Guest (0) Press F1
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31572 2002-01-17 06:37:00 sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I just got this in an email news post thingy....please note this is copied but I thought it very interesting.
Here's a case in point: As we've discussed in the past, Microsoft is
about to pull the plug on support for Windows 98, 98SE, and NT; support
has already officially ended for Windows 3.xx, and Windows NT 3.5x; and
support has become skeletal for Win95, Win95 OSR1 and Win95 OSR2. (See
www.langa.com and
www.langa.com for more info.)

Microsoft's new 'Desktop Product Lifecycle Guidelines' affect *all*
their products--- not just operating systems. (If you want to see when
Microsoft will pull the plug on support for *your* software, check out
www.microsoft.com and
support.microsoft.com .)

In fact, this recent change in support for older products is one of the
reasons why we've been covering XP and non-Windows alternatives more
than we might otherwise: Microsoft is starting to *force* you to move to
newer products; if you want support.

Once again, please don't shoot the messenger: *I'm* not the one tossing,
say, Win98 into the trash heap--- it's Microsoft doing it! I'm just
trying to help you cope. <g>

For example, the article at www.langa.com
11-15.htm#1 urged you to grab all the downloads, patches, updates, and
related files you could (while they were still available) for any
product that Microsoft has decided to stop supporting: In effect, you
need to create a self-contained support system if you want to keep using
these products.

As mentioned above, support for some popular Microsoft products already
has ended. But an enterprising reader poked around in the corners of
some Microsoft servers and found useful files for some of these
officially unsupported products. If you're using these products, it'd be
smart to grab these files while you still can:

Fred, Excellent newsletter as always! I must mention a find I
stumbled into on Microsoft's FTP site...
...I have been looking for a copy of the Windows 3.1 Resource
kit just to complete my collection. I also keep a copy running
for old Origin games (I can't just kick the habit of crashing
though dungeons Richard Garriot style).... Here is what I
found:

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/peropsys/msdos
ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/peropsys/windows

These two locations in Microsoft's FTP contain Knowledge
Base(KB) items that I can not pull up on [the main] KB site
any longer, and some files that may help people!

In the msdos dir there is a public folder which contains the
supplemental disk images for msdos 6.xx in several languages!
(I think these were the result of that lawsuit over
DoubleSpace?). In another folder are the disk images for the
Step-Up to 6.22 from a prior version of MSDOS.

The gem for me however was within the windows directory. In
there were the KB files and the Resource Kit in a help file
format and in a disk image format taken from the original
resource kit! Also found there were KB files in Help file
format Microsoft Windows Version 3.11 Refresh (driver file
updates it appears) I don't know how useful these are to that
many people these days, but for die-hards like myself this
stuff eventually finds a use ) --- Daniel S. Gurrola 		Guest (0)
31573 2002-01-17 11:23:00 Hi Dippy.
Good to see you read some good stuff. I just read my Langa List about 10 minutes before I read your post.
Keep up the good work.

Cheers. 		Guest (0)
31574 2002-01-17 16:10:00 Tooo Long...cant be bothered reading! Did you now we are meant to be posting and not writing essays?? :) Guest (0)
31575 2002-01-17 22:14:00 This enforced upgrading sux as a business practice, doesn't it? Over the years I have paid good money for DOS3, 5, 6.0, 6.2, Win3.0, 3.1, 3.11, 95, 98, 98se, all of which were good products. I usually upgraded because I wanted the latest, deemed to be the greatest, but now I am quite content to continue using 98se. Especially as most of the very expensive software that I now have doesn't work with XP and won't without a further injection of cold cash. All that I have does what I want so why should I have to change? I can still quite easily get spare parts for my 1967 mini - the manufacturer still supplies support because I spent good money buying his product, so what makes Bill Gates so superior that he will no longer support product that he once produced? Surely a few Mb of his vast web space isn't too much to ask. He certainly isn't giving anyone any incentive to invest in any of his new products. Guest (0)
31576 2002-01-17 22:34:00 I would find it hard to believe that he would just get rid of the update files. They would still be there for downloading somewhere. The software programmers and the like at M$ would make a point of sneaking it in to the microsoft server.

JM 		Guest (0)
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