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Alternatives to Win98


waywyrd

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First off, you totally miss my point! Of course your old w9x apps will still work, as they still do on my commodore 64. THe whole point is; Computer usage CHANGE!
Computer usage has hardly changed in 9 years. Most people use their computer as Internet terminals these days, and the web is here to stay, as it was built on open standards. Back in the days of the Commodore, it was chaos.
And no, I won't rely on you, a single person guaranteeing the usage of future safe web browsing for the 9x platform. Are you insane? Do you think Anyone just would take your word for it just like that?

You're calling me insane because you assume that I think you would take my word for it? The right term is naive.

You don't know me, so you can't judge my abilities.

You don't necessarily need to klick "yes" to get a virus, spyware worms etc
Have you been sleeping under a rock for the past 5 years? Viruses that use exploits aren't that common. These days it's all about social engineering. Viruses that do use exploits are geared at WinNT systems, with their high amount of network services, just begging to be owned.

As I explained earlier, the only door in Win9x is the browser. If you have a secure web browser, you're pretty much safe. With a hardware firewall, even more so.

"when you use older OS you use older software" Well thats real dandy... when my boss send me an autocad file made in autocad 2007 which wont install on 9x. Ok, I just pop up my autocad 2002 then... but oh no, that can't open that new autocad files anyway... bummer.

Closed formats are a problem on all OSs.

No, in 10 years you'll still have w95 and office 97 fully working. But do you really think office 2017 opens up that old documents anymore? It won't, so whats the point of using it then? It is no point!
Knowing M$, and their new OpenXML format, I think it will still be compatible with older documents.
tcpa

I've read about it, and sure, it's a real danger, but you can't assume that they will succeed. You're trying to look in a crystal ball. So much can still happen.

By the way, there's only a Fritz chip on IBM Thinkpad computers since May 2002. I saw no mention of those being on other motherboards.

No, your programs won't dissapear, or stop work, but they will become useless and pointless having
Really?

-My browser won't, as the Internet is based on open standards

-My picture viewer won't, as the specification of PNG, GIF, etc. doesn't change

-My FTP won't, as FTP is an open standard

-My CD burner won't, it will keep working with CD-ROM drives

-My IM clients won't, as they are based on protocols

-My plain text editor won't stop being able to edit plain text

etc.

I'm not talking about computers as toys here, but as a real tool for productive and educational work.

Then you caught me on the wrong channel, as I'm talking from the point of view of a home user, not some salary man or corporation.

You on the other hand seem content with you pogo or pacman working in 10 years.
I don't play games a lot on this computer. I use it mostly as an Internet terminal. I surf the web(web browser), maintain a couple websites (plain text editor + FTP client), hack Firefox/Thunderbird extensions to make them compatible with SeaMonkey (plain text editor, ZIP tool), view the odd picture, sometimes play a game...

I would say I'm quite productive.

popular programs like quake arena, GTA

Hold it! Those are video games, not traditional programs, which PCs were not designed for. Game consoles were. Now, I know there are games that you can only play on a PC, but I feel it shouldn't be a point in this kind of discussion.

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If more people used the platform, those programs would be ported there from the beginning by the producer, thats not hard to grasp, is it.
Dream on. Firefox has had a 10+% browser user share for at least a year, and there are still tons of companies that refuse to fix their sites to work in it. The current Linux user share isn't even close to 10%.
But anyway, I'm tired of trying to convince you there's any point in newer computer systems, because you obviously have decided for yourself what you have now will be good enough for you forever.

There is a point in newer computer systems, but only for developers who need developer class systems, and businesses who need to run heavy duty applications to do things like maintain their databases.

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Ok, I see you have some valid arguments, and some not. I'm not going to discuss those any further. Anyway, I respect your stand that this can work for you, but I'll dare to claim that for most users on this old platform, sticking with it forever isn't a viable option in the long run.

Given that was the original posters view, and the question being "what after w98?", I think we can safely bury this argument and get back to the question at hand.

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It is not the consumers who really matters it is the companies and organizations that does work that requires such and such programs. The problem is that once they see one program can out do another decided to make the jump.

Like with Imageready( I forget the program name ) vs. Quark. Quark is only supported up to 4.11 for 98 but Quark is at 6 and 7 with MacOSX and XP. Now for me to do my work at home ( like it should be ) I would have to invest in the hardware and software. Leaving me no other options in order to get the work done.

For me it would be.

Linux + Mplayer + Gui + Remote bound = Home Theather. Linux will get the job done much faster then since it was originally made for Linux and me wanting a simple setup would be better. With 98 I could setup a Gui or even use another program like BSplayer or VLC but after video file after video file the problems with 98 like leftover stored data would progress and that limitation of 1GIG memory.

2000 + Any Video Editing = Safer/faster ???? With 2000 and the NTFS format I can have a big file that could be 16 exabytes ( I forget if this is the file size or partition size ). Which means I would have more programs to choose from that would not split the file ( regaurdless of shotty programing I would think it would be safer then wokring with broken parts. ) . Yet there is many programs out there that will split a file on Windows 98 and allow you to

I have also heard Amiga was the start of video editing for home users.

Sound editing. I have never seen or imaging a RAW music file being bigger then 4GIGS. If so then these programs must have divided the file or they used something else like a Apple. Also Sound editors for years had many kinds of Hardware but never cared about things like which OS.

GAME PROGRAMMING... You can do the main 3d creating on a 98 machine with XSI, Maya, or whatever VRML based program that is out there since the days of 198?. Programing deos not require alot space but then again RAM might be the issue here. Still again there is many programmers that deal with RAM.

Again the question is what system did the creators of Final Fantasy: Advent Children, Beast Wars, Reboot, Donkey Kong Country, and even Resident Evil used.

Most of the time it is a Command Line interface while other times it is just what can you get he most power out of.

In terms of game programming people still use 95 and where this fails they use Apple. If no that then something like BSOD or Sun.

Like I mentioned earlier Corperations are the real consumers and will be the ones to judge the outcome. As with Vista. In terms with VideoGame players controlling whcih OS there game could be played on.

Time and Time again we have learned that people are that stupid amnd rather get it over with. It is going to be like last year and the year before with people buying craptacullar OS and programmers who are forced to make programs for these OSes will abandon 98 just as when NT emerged.

The thing is Command line is the real king but people in this world are just too ignorant to use it. That is the truth. 98 will allways be my gaming machine but the truth is that is what 98 is. A perfect consumer OS for regular multi purpose use. You can do a little of everything but not the best of everything.

98 is the best game machine.

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Will 9x have big HD support or recognize nt partitions?

9x can see only up to 2TB since a FAT32 partition can only go that far. However if you ever had to scan disk on that drive you would be waiting for weeks for it to finish. SO the problem there would be you would need to install a diffrent scan disk tool in replacement of the 98 scandisk.

About NT partition I think somebody here already did this on this webpage and is in this section. You need to get the driver files that 2000/XP use to see NTFS. However it can only read not write since there is the issue with files over 4gig.

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I'm sure corporations have an influence, but I don't think it's as big as you're saying. Many businesses haven't migrated to Windows XP, or just have, yet it's the most prevalent OS anywhere you go.

One of the problems of today's industry is that there's no separation between computers for corporations and computers for the home user. There's only one 'package', so to speak. If there was a package for each, they could have different OSs, chosen for how it's going to be used.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Will 9x have big HD support or recognize nt partitions?

9x can see only up to 2TB since a FAT32 partition can only go that far. However if you ever had to scan disk on that drive you would be waiting for weeks for it to finish. SO the problem there would be you would need to install a diffrent scan disk tool in replacement of the 98 scandisk.

About NT partition I think somebody here already did this on this webpage and is in this section. You need to get the driver files that 2000/XP use to see NTFS. However it can only read not write since there is the issue with files over 4gig.

Uh, there are third party tools (such as Sysinternals NTFS for Win9x) that can recognize NTFS volumes under Win9xME systems:

http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/NtfsWindows98.exe

also, read the NTFS support in Win98se or ME topic:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=39573

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I don't know how many of you actually compared Windows 2000 Professional but, this is my take after running it on a computer I got free.

First, a little background on the computer.

AMD K 6, 400 MHZ, 384 MB of RAM

I'm a die hard fan of Windows 98, and, I do own a PC offering Windows XP. However, if I had to pick among the two (XP -vs- Win2K) as an alternative of 98, I would choose Windows 2000 Professional.

Here are my reasons

1. Windows 2000 will operate on a 133 MHZ Minimum computer with 128 MB of RAM (Recomended) XP's processor Minimum is 233 MHZ, and 256 MB of RAM (Recomended).

2. Windows 2000 manages memory really good. I was shocked to find out 384 MB, Windows 2000 only consumed 62 MB of RAM on idle. Windows XP is 110 MB sitting on 256 MB of RAM at idle.

3. Opening and closing browsers and, media players throughout the day (5 - 8 hours) put the memory back at 62 MB of RAM usage at the end of the day.

For the record, memory comparisons was with nothing starting up in the background, and both using classic windows GUI. So, the only thing being run is the operating system and the Opera browser.

4. Simple GUI. It really reminds me of Windows 98. I'm just not a huge fan of eye candy task bars, & wall papers.

5. Download Speeds.

On Windows 98, I average 9.6 and peak at 13.6 mbps

On Windows 2000, I average 15 mbps, and peak at 22 Mbps. (I should only be getting 15 Mbps Max, but I'm not complaining :whistle: )

On Windows XP, the average and peaks are the same as 2000, eventhough XP is sitting on a 2.8 GHZ, Pentium 4.

What it boils down to is Windows 2000 performing very efficently on a computer dating before Windows 98 Second Edition.

Hope this helps those looking for an alternative to 98.

Edited by Atmosphere XG
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new and more advanced viruses and worms etc surfaces

How is this a problem? I haven't had a virus in years, because I'm not a luser that clicks "Yes" on every download/warning prompt. Also, viruses target newer Windows systems, and services that only exist on those. The only door in Win9x is the browser, and if that door is secured, you're safe. A hardware firewall gives even better protection.

Actually there is no need to click yes on anything in order to get infected. Accessing a webpage with certain scripts on them is enough.

If you save as html file the snippet I have posted in the first post of this topic and run the page with IE, a file named vm3.exe should be downloaded in your temp folder from a website in Russia without any interaction from your part. (You need to have javascript enabled in IE of course)

You can try safely as this vm3.exe which is a rootkit targetting NT OSes and attempts to run as soon as it is downloaded, appears to crash immediately on a 9x OS.

Edited by eidenk
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