Hi snowflake,
I use W98SE, and I can and will continue to use for it decades to come. My printer and scanner are eleven years old and still in A1 working order; however, even when they fail it will be at worst a minor inconvenience.
My advice is dual boot with a later version of Windows as well (not instead). Get used to it gradually if you wish, otherwise just use it for emails and Internet services (that would take only a few hours to setup and become proficient).
I have chosen Xubuntu, a free Linux program, and I dual boot with W98SE. That was quite a learning curve (though enjoyable) and everything works perfectly (except it cannot use my ancient scanner so I scan from W98SE). The free program Wine allows me to use a dozen or so of my favorite W98SE programs from within Xubuntu. (I have even managed to configure Wine to use XP (which I don't have) on a particular program - but most Windows programs do not run well (or at all) using Wine.
You can even load at least one Linux program from within W98SE and switch between them instantaneously [I tried it - I think it was Damn Small Linux (DSL)].
So, you have many first class choices that may suit you almost perfectly and require very little effort or experience. Linux is almost Malware-free but I still use a software firewall, a much later and safer version of Firefox than was available on W98SE, and the Linux version of Avast (Debian version on Xubuntu) which with broadband takes about 6 minutes daily to update and do a full on demand scan of my Xubuntu Home directory.
There will be readers who think me insane but that is their problem, not mine. It is a pity that Avast will cease for W98 users but I would only give thanks for my recent use of their excellent Home program and wish them continuing success with v5 onwards.
My regards
Hi Mike,
Great post and insight. I understand that a few years ago C-Net published a study and found that their were about 30 MILLION Windows 98 users still out there! I have Windows XP and still have Office 97, with all the free MS converter updates, and I did also get a Word 2003 update disk because I was having trouble before that, getting some things on-line. My concerns are MS insane prices for the products that they offer. When I was back in college, I didn't know about the cost passed on to the customer and I went to the bookstore to look at whatever version of Office was out at the time, and when I saw the $400 price I almost died! I mean, I cannot understand the average home user paying $400 for a Word Processing Program! I know about the other programs like Outlook, Excel, and Power Point, but all I ever used was Word, so when I found out that WordPerfect you could get for less than half the cost of Word, I was very happy. $400 for writing college papers and letters to grandma is a little extreme.
That was years ago and I was trained on Windows 98 at my college and it did what I needed it to do. There is one big problem with Windows 98, and that is lack of security. The very old versions of the operating systems, programs like Outlook 97/2000, would not be good for e-mail today because they don't have the security issues that are needed.
Today's market almost requires:
1.) A reasonably recent OS
2.) Running of Windows Update
3.) The importance of a good AV program
4.) The use of a Firewall
5.) The care of never opening any suspicious files or e-mails.
6.) Early warning prevention against spam, spyware, phishing, and virus threats BEFORE you get to the site. (I am a huge fan of the McAfee Site Advisor plug in.) NOT their AV!!! Too bloated!! Avast is still the very best AV program!
If security was not the concern that it is today and Windows 98 would be supported with 1-5, Windows 98 would probably still be fine for 60% of most computer users. But you can't combat the problems of computer security with Windows 98. That's the problem.
As a side-note, does anyone know if the McAfee Site Advisor plug in works in Windows 98?
Jack
