MS Win98 support reprieve was move to block Linux, says Gartner

[sime]

Oh that's really going to stop the move Bill... NOT!

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/34938.html

[WMD]

quote:"At this point," says Gartner, "most of the population still running Windows 98 may be less motivated to make, and less able to afford, a quick move to XP and may be more interested in Linux compared with those still running NTW4.

I understand what they're thinking - but, this is only going to help Linux, in the long run.

I know some people that dual-boot 98 and Linux, keeping Windoze only for games.  Most of them don't plan to ever upgrade their Windows any more, hoping that game developers take Linux more seriously by the time 98 falls away.  Now, this is 2006 instead of 2004.  So, MS gets less people upgrading than before.

Also, MS's perpetual upgrading system hasn't been a universal success anyway.  My mom's office uses the unsupported Windows 95, because it still does everything they need.  Also, I'm sure lots of people still use NTw4 - after all, it's probably more stable then XP.     Same goes for NTs4 over Win2k3.

[black crow]

quote:I understand what they're thinking - but, this is only going to help Linux, in the long run.

I know some people that dual-boot 98 and Linux, keeping Windoze only for games. Most of them don't plan to ever upgrade their Windows any more, hoping that game developers take Linux more seriously by the time 98 falls away. Now, this is 2006 instead of 2004. So, MS gets less people upgrading than before.

This is true.  I'm dual booting Mandrake 9.1 with 98SE, the latter only being used for games & internet access.  I would far sooner ditch 98SE & replace it with, for example, Slackware, than upgrade to a more recent Winblow$ OS.

[hm_murdock]

Server 2003 is tight.

[PseudoRandomDragon]

I think it was really the complaining of companies that did not want to spend the money and move to Win2k or (ugh) WinXP.

Personally, support or no support I would not move. I partitioned Win98SE and Mandrake. I am still learning Mandrake, which means it will take time before I can get all my apps to work with it. That is pretty much the only reason why I am still using Windows. Support or no support, I would still drop the OS forever.