I can also confirm that avast version 5.0 requires Windows 2000 and higher. Sorry for that, but there are many (and I mean
many) technical reasons why we had to make this decision. The latest OSes (such as Win7) are so much different from the original Win95/98/ME that supporting both would basically force us to create two different avasts.
Can you tell me how long then Avast 4.8 will be available for users of the 98 system?
I am not promising anything but my understanding is that avast 4.8 will be supported (i.e. daily definition updates will be released) at least till mid-2010. But again, this is an unofficial, unconfirmed information.
Win98 still has many users.
It really depends on your definition of
many.
This is the chart from the computers that have updating avast definitions during the last 7 days (roughly 350 million update attempts) --
see below.
As you can see, Windows 95/98/ME together make up ~ 0.54% of our userbase. Of course, this is still some 400+ thousand people, but it's simply not possible to justify the costs associated with the development of a Win9x version because of a half percent of our community.
I'm sorry... but I'm afraid it's time to move on and upgrade.
Cheers
Vlk