[pchelpers] Re: Windows 98/98SE/ME end of support

Hi Scott

> EGlnl> 5) Remove the illegal XP and install a legal version of Windows
> EGlnl> 98. It's easy to get a legal 98 CD free from a friend who
> EGlnl> doesn't even need it any more, so she can keep it. If she gets
> EGlnl> all existing security updates for Windows 98, it will be safer
> EGlnl> than XP even when MS stops providing security updates soon
> EGlnl> because no one is writing new malware for 98.
> 
> She will need to get all of the security updates NOW, and save them on
> CD somewhere -- and this goes for everyone else also, because
> Microsoft is ending all support on July 11; only the old self-help
> pages will be left.

As far as i know, all the updates will be available later too, just as 
they still are for 95, at least the English ones; the non-English ones 
seem to be "hidden" or unavailable. The only difference is that the 
automatic update page will be dismantled, but it's easy to download and 
doubleclick on all the critical updates.

In any case, i provided this option as #5, as the last Windows option, 
the next one being the solution of switching to Linux, which would of 
course be better, and which i put later in my list only because many 
people would try to avoid it. And if it's a choice of running an illegal 
version of Windows XP with critical security holes for which viruses are 
circulating and running Windows 98 with all updates, it's obvious which 
is safer, not to mention more legal.

> She'll also find it increasingly hard to find motherboards,
> peripherals, and applications that are supported under Windows 98.
> Virtually all new equipment and software already no longer includes
> support for it.

Even if that means having to look for used motherboards and other parts 
in the unlikely event of needing something like that in a new computer, 
the Windows 98 option is still much better than running an illegal XP 
with critical security holes. Most users do not need more than basic 
functions in a computer, and virtually all necessary equipment and 
software is still available for Windows 98. Since such a large 
percentage of people are still using 98, this will also probably result 
in a large market in used parts, which will be one of the best things 
that happened to the environment in a long time.

Many people with older computers will also switch to Linux and will 
discover that their computers run faster than many newer computers with 
XP. The only "real" problem in switching to Linux is having to learn to 
use new programs, but even that problem disappears for people who have 
already switched to Firefox, Thunderbird, and AbiWord or OpenOffice, 
because these all run on both Windows and Linux.



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