Retired Microsoft Operating Systems Still Popular

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "Despite Microsoft's recent retirement of Windows 98, News.com reports that many users continue to cling to the company's older operating systems. The study cited in the article suggests that 80 percent of companies still have machines operating on Windows 95 or 98. While Windows 2000 was the most common OS in the study, just 6.6 percent of the desktop machines included in the survey were running Windows XP." The results aren't too surprising. I get a lot of user mail from Netscape 4 users, and it only makes sense that they're running it somewhere.

To the 80%...

[twoslice]

Just wait a few more years, 2098 is just around the corner - you can make it!

Re:Companies are better off than schools.

[Anonymous Coward]

All you need is a Flux Capicitor and those Apple IIc's will be able to send you back to the future!

Re:Companies are better off than schools.

[Glock27]

I don't even know what a physics class would be doing with Apple IIc's.

Can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of...?

:-)

Re:you can run netscape in winxp?

[Anonymous Coward]

> I mean there are fewer 2004 cars on the road than 2004...

I nearly spat my coffee at the screen reading that. I've just spent the better half of 2 days trying to get a firmware update working under Win XP, when all the updater wants to tell me is:

"Please enter a device between 1024"

Your words were sent to haunt me weren't they? gaaaaah!

Sincerely,
now-unstable-slashdot-poster.

Re:Companies are better off than schools.

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, Apples have traditionally been used in the study of gravity, dating back to Newton's time. It only makes sense they are used in a physics class.

Users exist in spacetime

[base_chakra]

it only makes sense that they're running it somewhere.

Well observed, CowboyNeal. ;)

Misread!

[mraymer]

I misread that as "Retarded Microsoft Operating Systems Still Popular" which might not be a stretch for a Slashdot headline. ;)

I have a simple explanation for why end users aren't jumping on XP.... Perhaps they think "Windows 2000" must be better than "Windows XP" because 2000 is a really big number! Har har. Seriously, I bet that does have a bit of an impact on the end user. I mean, look how much MHz/GHz numbers impact sales. I think a lot of people simply see a big number and think it must be better.

As for those still stuck on win9x... well, they have my pity, but I can understand them. Who really wants to pay $100+ for a new OS, especially in a sluggish economy?

I'm pretty happy with XP. I think the fact that it was only $20 through my school helped me like it more. ;)

Re:Companies are better off than schools.

[bitflip]

The apple ][gs from 1986 is capable of doing everything the average person does with their pc

Yeah, but it takes six months to rip a CD.

Windows 98 Works?

[Master of Transhuman]

Oh, wait, I forgot - people reinstall it every week.

Re:you can run netscape in winxp?

[John Murray]

My company found remote desktop to be a very good reason to move users to XP. Remote desktop uses the very lightweight RDP protocol, so reasonable remote access is available with not a lot of bandwidth. Users who have to, need to, or want to, work from home can get access to all the software, and network resources just like they were at there office pc. Provides a quick, and easy to setup remote access solution, user can use there home PC, or a older company issued laptop. No worries, about having to setup and maintain extra computers for users who want to work at home, and no worries about synchronizing data between 2 pcs.

Re:Windows 98

[Bombcar]

And I would like to disrespectivly agree with you. No reason, really. But so much politeness on Slashdot is unnerving.

Re:Companies are better off than schools.

[hudsucker]

When I was in school we had old machines running old OS and we had to so everything ourselves.

You had an OS?

When I was in school we had PDP-11's with no operating system. We had to type in our programs as machine code in octal.

And we liked it.