It has been 7 years since Win98 was released

[jack99]

i never had much problems with fat32 until u get 2 many apps and junk loaded up.

[prathapml]

Try REALLY stressing your HD and running FAT32 for a year and NTFS for a year..... you start to dis-like the slowness of FAT32 after that.

jack99,

Dunno, "too many apps" and "junk" should NOT matter. The point is, "too many apps" does not affect NTFS as much as for FAT32. So that's reasonable proof of which is better tuned....

[srs]

It's ridiculous for people who upgrade to XP to then waste time on a forum criticizing people who don't upgrade. Are you guys paid by Microsoft? (Maybe you are...I don't know. It sure sounds like it.) If a computer setup works well for someone, there is NO URGENT NEED for them to have the latest and supposedly greatest stuff on his computer. Oftentimes upgrading means giant headaches, reinstalling, sometimes fixing major problems, often getting used to a new OS that may or may not work better for what he has to do. People that insist on having all the latest stuff will certainly want to upgrade to XP, but people who use a computer as a tool and do not feel any great obligation to create new headaches for themselves may be satisfied with what they have. Neither 98 nor XP are great operating systems, to be honest with you. Both are adequate, and each is better for certain things. For most mainstream uses, they are also both pretty similar, and upgrading can mean great expense, a lot of time and effort invested, and sometimes major unwanted hassles. People who would rather be productive than spend days, weeks, or months getting a new OS going might be better off sticking with what they have.

I have a 98 system that is set up well as an all-purpose tool for what I need to do on a computer. Switching to XP would cost me a lot of time for very little benefit. There would be a few benefits -- I'd be able to run a FEW more NEW things, and my system would at the very least crash in different ways or have DIFFERENT security holes. But the overall setup would not be all that much better than what I have now. I would gain a little forward compatibility, lose a little backward compatibility. The computer could stay running for days on end, but probably a lot slower and with more potential glitches than what I have now. (For instance, XP is susceptible to some of the more annoying new security threats. And for all the talk about it being more stable than 98, I know many people who have to frequently reimage their XP machines because of weird conflicts, software problems, new spyware, etc. 98 has its problems too but XP would be a bigger hassle in this regard on my setup.)

I also am not a fan of Microsoft's XP registration scheme. Microsoft has accumulated more cash than virtually any company in history, and how does it repay its customers? By trusting them LESS. They should not be rewarded for that kind of unattractive behavior. I don't like forking over any more money to that company than I have to for a variety of reasons, and it's the principle of the thing. I don't hate Microsoft, but I am not a fan of many of their business practices, and I don't like the cold way they often treat their customers. They take us for granted. They EXPECT me to simply pump a few hundred dollars into their coffers every few years by buying a new OS. Yet their new OS's consistently underwhelm me. If I could transform the setup I have now to XP at no cost, with no loss of performance, with no time invested, I'd probably do it. But considering how little I will gain and the potential hassle I will have to go through to upgrade, I don't exactly see the point.

In other words, when I buy a new computer I will not go out of my way to uninstall XP and reinstall 98. But I will not go out of my way right now to install an OS that offers barely measureable improvements over what I already have.

[georgethetee]

I intend to stick with W98SE because I am not prepared to be robbed of hundreds of dollars for a product which is not worth it. In the UK Microsoft has perfected the art of overcharging - even an oem version costs around $120. We all know how much this stuff costs to make, they give equal value software away every month on magazine jackets.

Besides, since Gape's great work, I prefer 98 to XP - I have both Pro and Home versions of XP on laptops. My desktop stays slim and efficient with 98

Spec - AMD 2100 Nvidia 5900xt, 500mg, W98SE

[jack99]

well put george i have xpprosp2 on 1 pc and 98se on another with sp2.0 and other goodies and i used 98se about 99% of the time its speedy.

[pykor]

It's like being in High School again ...

... and the battle between MAC vs. PC

For those pompous, annoying and arrogant about their WinXP setup ... what's up with that? Is this some kind of self-esteem issue? Does it make you feel better than everyone else?

Personally I will stick with Win98SE for the rest of my life ... maybe even longer.

When I die, and St. Peter checks me in at the Pearly Gates, and wants to know what computer I want to use for eternity ... I"ll say "Load up the Win98SE please". Then he'll joke telling me that GOD uses the same thing. Of course, Satan uses Longhorn, but that's just obvious.

XP is ike cars, it depreciates after you drive it off the lot. My old 1989 chevy gets more reactions from people than another friend's 2004 Toyota RAV4. Is the RAV4 faster? More Stable? Sure, the GUI is better ... but we get the same gas mileage and quite frankly ... the real truth is ... they both take us where we want to go.

It's not my job to support MS and always buy the latest release. And since I also don't own stock in Dell, Gateway, or IBM, I also don't have the newest computer.

Running XP on my computer (800 MHz) would be .... painfully, agonizing, and rediculously slow. How do I know? I installed XP for a friend on their computer. It was painful to set up and wait. And their computer was FASTER than mine, yet XP was still slow (celeron processor and only 192MB RAM probably). I had them get Win98SE from ebay and it moves much faster now. They are now selling their XP on ebay.

As for those that can rattle off ALL the wonderful things about XP ... good for you. I'm sure that self-esteem is improving. I hope you are happy with the life you have chosen.

A line that I remembered from the mini-series "V" said by Donovan that I'll change here:

"Dont ever make me choose between your XP and my 98SE ... because you'll lose every time."

[jeeva]

I have 2 PCs with, one (900 MHz Athlon) with 98 and the other (1500 MHz Centrino) with XP, I think XP has very useful functions for mobile Computers, such as included W-LAN support for researching Access Points or Power Management support.

But I don't need these functions on an old Athlon, there I want to see TV and 9x/Me and NT are the only OSes who support Overlay, I know that XP runs flowingly on my Athlon, I had installed it on a second HD but I can only see a 768x578 pixel TV and that is MUCH fuzzier than that on 98, because the WDM driver is bader than the VFW.

Windows 98 starts up in seconds and shows you a clean desktop, it is MUCH sleeker than XP, not preloaded with all that sucking things like Movie Maker, sure you can use nLite, but I need a system which I can install everything which is compatible, I had trouble to install SonicStage on my brothers notebook, because we did a very lightweight XP.

I plan to upgrade my hardware, but I will surely stay on 98.

By the way: 98 means 98 SE with SP2.0 just for records.

I ask the threadopener and everyone who agree him, what do you want 98 to do, which you can do on XP?

[jack99]

alot of the function on xp like moviemaker etc etc i never use sure its nice to have a contol panel full of wireless etc function but 98se does everything joe home user neeeds it 2 the only draw back might be that ie 7 probably wont be alavable for 98se and if msn 7 requires ie 6sp2 i imagine msn 8.0 the messenger probably wont run on 98se but who knows patches fixes are the stuff of forums .

[jeeva]

And who uses IE?

I use MSN Messenger on my XP box.

Agreed, one XP PC for some things is not bad, but why upgrading where you don't need.

[un4given1]

I ask the threadopener and everyone who agree him, what do you want 98 to do, which you can do on XP?

I don't want it to do anything... if you want to know what XP does that Windows 98 does not... read all 43 pages of the thread I have explained it many, many times.

And who uses IE?

I do... why? Because for one, IE auto authenticates using windows logon information. No other browser does. Also, surely you have seen the news lately with all the vulnerabilites in FF and all of the patches.

For all of you Windows 98 lovers:

stay with Windows 98... I could care less. I just don't want to hear you complain 2 years from now "xyz program won't isntall on Windows 98... boo hoo hoo"

[Ge0ph]

For all of you Windows 98 lovers:

stay with Windows 98... I could care less. I just don't want to hear you complain 2 years from now "xyz program won't isntall on Windows 98... boo hoo hoo"

Why wait 2 years? Just look here.

[un4given1]

yeah... just what I needed...

[azagahl]

stay with Windows 98... I could care less. I just don't want to hear you complain 2 years from now "xyz program won't isntall on Windows 98... boo hoo hoo"

On the other side of the coin, I have software and hardware that works fine on 98, but XP SP2 is incompatible with it right now.

Just the other day I tried to use my multi-megabyte HOSTS file from 98 SE on my XP system, but I had to remove it after it brought XP to its knees.

[Fredledingue]

The only software I couldn't install was brennig's image viewer. But now Brennig's is payware so I don't care and don't use it

[jeeva]

I ask the threadopener and everyone who agree him, what do you want 98 to do, which you can do on XP?

I don't want it to do anything... if you want to know what XP does that Windows 98 does not... read all 43 pages of the thread I have explained it many, many times.

Ok I find any time, I'll do.

And who uses IE?

I do... why? Because for one, IE auto authenticates using windows logon information. No other browser does. Also, surely you have seen the news lately with all the vulnerabilites in FF and all of the patches.

Yes but in FF you mustn't wait 'till the next Patchday for an update. But don't tell me about FF vulnerabilites, IE has and had A LOT more.

Ok giving away a safe system for some convienience, like you want, I don't care.

For all of you Windows 98 lovers:

stay with Windows 98...  I could care less.  I just don't want to hear you complain 2 years from now "xyz program won't isntall on Windows 98...  boo hoo hoo"

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ok thank you, that's what I wanted to hear... lets see what happens in two years, perhaps I'll buy a PowerMac and get rid of these troubles with M$ Versioning Problems.

By the way, I use only 98 on my primary PC, because XP doesn't work well with my Hauppauge card.

EDIT: Sorry, didn't see Page 44, so I didn't need all the quotes.