On a forum with subject "Windows 95/98/98SE/ME", this excuse doesn't go. Think of the Win95 and WinME users too.

You're very correct.

For Windows 9x/Me, usage doesn't even total 1%. In fact, there is a steady decline. The ranges from 0.48% - 0.58%, and W3 Counter reports 0.96%, though the four others (Net Applications, XiTi Monitor, OneStat and Median) seem to have the more normalized range.

Source: Usage share of desktop operating systems - Wikipedia

Indeed. By some metrics, Win98 lost 55% of it's already few users in the last 10 months. And there's no signs of it slowing down at all. Just look.

And there's even less Windows ME users (they're also declining at about the same rate, around 55% in 10 months), and there's basically no Win 95 users left. When all of win9x combined accounts for 3/4 of 1%, and it's on a fast & steady decline, you can't exactly be surprised nobody really cares about or develops for your platform anymore. Another 10 months at that pace, and all of Win95/98/ME users combined are going to account for about 1/3 of 1% (significantly less than Linux, NT, or both flavors of Mac OS)

You can hope all you want for apps to keep supporting Win9x (OOo included), but don't really be surprised when it fails to happen, and that the market share of win9x keeps shrinking at this amazing speed...

This post has been edited by crahak: Jun 15 2008, 08:14 PM

According to those same stats, Linux is not doing significantly better. If that's not sufficient reason for open-source developers to support 9x, I don't know what is.

Still, all of these stats are from personal counters in sites that are somewhat less than "public generic internet portals". Stats from Google would have better overview, but most of these sites attract developers to begin with.

I've tested the Go OO 2.4.1 version of the OpenOffice. It seems to be working as good as the OpenOffice.org 2.4.0.

The most important difference seems to be the DOCX support and a bit different installation system. As, there are no Java plugin and Google Toolbar in it. It looks a bit different, because the icons are different (bigger).

Linux is a good platform quickly gaining popularity (quicker than macs -- 48% increase in 10 months, versus 30% increase for macs in the same time frame), with a future ahead, and one of the main alternatives to Windows. Win9x is a platform almost no one uses already, and still on a quick and steady decline (55% decrease in the same time frame). Linux on the desktop already has as many users as all of Win9x combined, and is gaining more real fast, while Win9x losing theirs just as quickly. In 10 months at this rate, Linux will have at least 3x the market share of all Win9x combined, and 10 months after that, you're talking about 10x bigger. I don't see what makes that a reason to support Win9x in any way -- much the inverse (not worth wasting time over).


No. Sure, if you look at w3schools' counters, those only reflect their own site's usage. But places like net applications collect that data from thousands of places (from about 160M hits per month). You could even add their counter to your site if you wanted to.

Edit: Actually, another way to look at it, is that Mac OS X on new Intel boxes, gained FIVE TIMES as many users in the last 10 months, as there are Win98 users left. And there's nearly 6x as many Mac OS Classic (a platform Apple themselves abandoned) users as Win98 users. Right now, there's roughly SIXTEEN TIMES more Mac users as Win98 users. Some stats now bundle up Win98 users in the "other" category, along with WebTV and such. And Apple is still on the rise, so is Linux, both showing no sign of that growth slowing down anytime soon. On a side note, Win2k users are also becoming a small minority very quickly (lost 40% of its users in the last 10 months). And in a few more days, this month's stats should be in, Vista/Macs/Linux will be up again, XP/2k/9x down yet again.

This post has been edited by crahak: Jun 27 2008, 03:22 PM

Yup, i use Me as 98SE doesn't like my laptop. But isn't this why KernelEx is being developed? I don't think they'd deliberately break compatibility with 9x/Me, just that they won't test on this platform anymore.

GNU/Linux is growing now. But it doesn't mean that it will keep growing at the same rate.

I'll be holding out for Haiku, a real desktop OS.

Under Win98 when you double-click on the installer of v3.0: This program has performed an illegal operation ...

Tihiy, you've made that once again!

Some new version of KernelEx will be introduced?

KernelEx 0.3.6 (probably). It will be managed by Xeno in order to gain attention and update the thread.

Wow, that's pretty awesome seeing OOo 3 running on Win98. If that can truly be done, then I begin to wonder what the limits really are (Flash 10? Shockwave 11?).

Spectacular work.

Flash 10 works already with KernelEx 0.3.4 and above, although they've messed up installer in the release build.
To install it, use registry trick from a thread.

I have just tested it. The OO 3 installs and runs with the just released KernelEx 0.3.6.

Looks like the problem has been solved.

@Sfor
Just want to ask regarding the Go OO, did you use it on a Win98Se (without KernelEX installed)? And was it able to open docx documents without any problems? I'm just asking it because I noticed that Go OO is based on the Novell Open Office edition and somehow, I was having problems opening docx with it in Win98SE environment. I just don't know if the previously installed Sun Open Office had something to do with it. It's like this, I used to have a Sun OO 2.3 version installed in my PC. Then I uninstalled it to make way for the Novell 2.3. The Novell version could not open the docx file, and it keeps reporting a "read error."

I want to hold-off from installing KernelEX (to use the Sun OO version 3) for now because the last time I installed KernelEX (v 3.5), it prevented my games from running properly. I mean, Kernel was able to resolve the Gameguard problem I submitted quite some time ago, but this time, it caused problems in the games itself (like Warcraft and Ragnarok).

Anyway, another question of mine would be, when I uninstall Open Office (any version), is there an entry in the registry that I should erase manually so that it would not affect another Open Office version that I would want to install afterwards?

Hope you could help me. Thanks!

I have abandoned the GO OO testing. I've discovered a significant problem with Calc. Everytime I'm trying to copy/paste a range of cells a protection fault error happens. So, this version of Calc is not good for any advanced use.

As for the DOCX support testing, I've oppened a document or two. Thats, all.

The GO OO works on a Windows 98 without KernelEx, just as OOo 2 does.

I know nothing about any system registry entries related to OO, I'm afraid.

This post has been edited by Sfor: Oct 28 2008, 01:29 AM