When I obtain a new computer, the very first thing that happens is that Windows is removed and Linux is installed. However, over the years I have retained Windows on a few limited systems, for a few limited purposes. Jodi and I have desktop PCs, on which we run dual-boot OSes: Fedora Core linux and Windows ’98. We have Windows ’98 for several reasons. The first is that it was “state-of-the-art” in 1998-2000, when Jodi and I migrated to grad school. The second is that we refused to spend another $100-$300 dollars to upgrade to XP, which for a very long time was far less stable than ’98. <\/p>\n
\nHowever, now Microsoft has phased out support for 98 after agreeing to extend it for one more year (2005-2006). Last week, a critical flaw was identified in internet explorer in 98, one which will never be fixed by Microsoft. A lot of tech experts felt that this was a betrayal of the user community, because about 4% of all machines on the internet still run 98 and many are “zombies” – machines that are no longer maintained or even updated, but which remain connected to the net and are vulnerable to attack.<\/p>\n
\nNow, Slashdot reports [SlashdotWin98] that with the end of 98 and a look by the community toward a new OS, Linux appears to be picking up “newbies”. Ironically, it was 98 that I first installed on the PC I built for my mother and father in-law, and which due to promiscuous use by them became infected with over 20 viruses. That incident, not a surprise for new computer users who are eager to open every e-mail, convinced me to switch them to Linux. Being new to computers, one OS (interface) was as weird as another. I showed them how to get around the web, e-mail, and print, and they were fine.<\/p>\n
\nSo to people looking to get rid of their 98 box, I say this: save a few hundred buck, and NEVER fear the penguin.<\/p>\n
\n.. [SlashdotWin98] “http:\/\/linux.slashdot.org\/article.pl?sid=06\/09\/19\/2250257&from=rss”:http:\/\/linux.slashdot.org\/article.pl?sid=06\/09\/19\/2250257&from=rss<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I obtain a new computer, the very first thing that happens is that Windows is removed and Linux is installed. However, over the years I have retained Windows on a few limited systems, for a few limited purposes. Jodi and I have desktop PCs, on which we run dual-boot OSes: Fedora Core linux and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-572","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-computing","7":"czr-hentry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}