| WINDOWS 98 has crashed. And burned. Its pixels are growing dark. It has been deep-sixed. The operating system has been given the boot.
In the ominous words of its maker Microsoft, it has "transitioned to a non-supported status".
The patient is not technically dead, but has had its life support system switched off. Permanently. Microsoft will no longer provide technical support or security updates. It has already had one reprieve in 2003, when public pressure stopped Microsoft pulling the plug. But the decision taken this year is final.
For a while there has been new software that will not run properly on the system. And now nothing will be done to patch up holes that could be exploited by malicious hackers.
Nostalgia trip
While few will mourn the recalcitrant eight-year-old, many computer users will harbour fond memories of Windows 98. In automobile terms, it could be likened to a Volvo 240, a cumbersome but useful vehicle, with problems that were well-known but solvable.
For the world into which Windows 98 (and cousins Windows 98 Second Edition and Windows Me) was born is very different to today. The internet was something that made a strange weebley noise while establishing a connection. Now broadband rules the roost.
And those determined to administer CPR to keep the venerable operating system ticking over will find it harder and harder to maintain a pulse as software makers turn their backs on it.
Its plain blue default background is now giving away to the green hills and blue sky of XP.
No e-flowers please.
Tributes to Win98.
Another 1 bytes the dust.
Tim G, London
Word to word, crashes to crashes, dos to dos.
Dan, Surrey
So it's curtains for Windows 98.
Matthew, Edinburgh
Rest In PC.
JP, Swindon
Windows is shutting down...................
Alan, London
A pane-ful demise.
Mark G, Maidenhead
Ctrl Alt Defeat
Candace, New Jersey
Gone to the Pearly Bill Gates.
Mike , Newcastle upon Tyne
Had its chips
Clive, Nottingham
And on its tombstone it shall read:
MSMARKETING caused a general protection fault in module WIN98.DRV at 0012:072006dead
Ian, Birmingham |