Very OT - Computers

[Robert Gammon]

Back to the OP's question and concerns.

Win98 is going EOL at Microsoft. SO WHAT!!!!!

If it still works fine with all you need this computer to do, keep on using it as long as it lasts, even spend little bits of money to replace things if they break (power supply, mouse, keyboard, monitor) Shop around, used items, especially for monitors can be quite good and quite cheap. Power supplies, Rodents, and Keyboards are cheap.

When it breaks big time, i.e. hard drive fails, processor fails, burns up...... Then go see what the market is offering and make your decision.

Right now, if you go buy a machine from Dell, HP/Compaq,e-machines, Sony..... they call come with WinXp (home or Pro). In 6 months to a year, they will all come with Vista.

End of Life is a meaningless term. All it means is that if you call Microsoft Support, they will refuse to answer your questions. If you find a bug (bloody unlikely), they will accept your information, but nothing will ever happen. EOL does NOT mean that Win98 will STOP working, that the machine will refuse to boot Win98. Far from it.

IBM stopped supporting OS/2 several years ago. There are tens of thousands of computers around the world (even ATMs, bank teller terminals, stock brokerage terminals) that are still going strong with that old product. Just don't call IBM for support issues with OS/2, you'll get no answers.

EOL does not mean that the product stops working, it just means you are on your own for support (and most of us are in exactly that shape regardless of whether we use something from Microsoft, a Linux version, OS/2, Apple........)

[Edwin Pawlowski]

It is a matter of time. EVERY operating system has holes. Some are just harder to find. The reason Windows has so many attacks is the infantile minds of those that rite virus and worms. They have such a hate for Gates and Microsoft they spend hours, day, even weeks of their time to "get" them.

In a perfect world, we would not need anti-virus software, policemen, etc.

[Eugene Nine]

Same goes with any brand, Compaq/Hp makes good business systems while the presario/pavilion line are cheaply made propritary things. For basic use, get a used business machine from someplace like retrobox for half the price of a good new home system and you won't have all the "free" software to uninstall.

[Eugene Nine]

Yes, 2000 was the best, XP was a big disappointment after running NT4 and

2000 for a few years.

[Andy Asberry]

That is true. A few months ago, Newsguy inserted a cheesy spam message at the end of every post. I displayed my displeasure by using a long winded retort as my signature.

Bob, with Newsguy saw it on another group and contacted me about it. They quickly removed it. I thought that was pretty customer oriented and very responsive. I then added the above sig.

--Andy Asberry recommends NewsGuy--

[tom_sawyer70]

Corinne, Depending on how you learn (some people prefer classes over other mechanisms), there are a *ton* of websites to teach you various things (many times for free), and obviously you are aware of usenet groups for specific information.

I look to the internet for everything from clothes shopping to auto repair to research for projects, etc. before I look to classes and books.

[Oren]

It IS, not was the best, stable version. The pro version will give a home user years of stable use, for the moment.

For the same years as the OP, say 6 years 2000 stood up, took anything I sent to it.

XP really centered on a "power user", at least in pro. Pro opens all the network, dangerous from start up.

This WindoZe environment, we speak about has left (b)millions open to attack right out of the box.

Oren

[Eugene Nine]

Your right, I should have said IS.

XP tends to be annoying for the power user too though, most of its defaults are all wrong, poor memory management, etc.

[Jim]

Infections are in theory possible. But usually require the user to do something dumb like granting administrator privileges to something they don't know about. Stupid.

[*] My laptop is Mandriva 2006

[Jim]

Qualified agreement. Difference is Linux grants rights only equal to those of the user. If you're dumb enough to grant administrator privileges to something unknown then it is your fault you got hosed, not the OS.

[Mark Lloyd]

But it will mean something with XP (and later), where you have to have their permission every so often or else the OS commits suicide.

[Mark Lloyd]

Once I remember hearing that the average time-until-attack (for a system running Windows with default settings) was about 5 minutes. It's probably less now. It can help to have any Windows updates, device drivers, and a good firewall on a CD, so you can get it protected BEFORE getting on the internet.

[Mark Lloyd]

You don't have to worry about that last thing is you first reformat the disk and install the stuff YOU want.

[J. Clarke]

Uh, what difference do the settings make to "time until attack"? For that matter, what difference does the OS make? So someone attacks. So what? What is the time until the attack _succeeds_? That is what matters.

[J. Clarke]

The memory management is the same as in NT and 2K, and the main objection that "power users" have is that they don't have free reign.

[J. Clarke]

Yeah, you have to have "their permission" when you _install_ and at no other time.

[Corinne]

Your point is well taken. Thanks, and I will look into this.

Cor> Cor>

[Oren]

Any interesting read:

"Nothing more than the whim of a 13-year old hacker is required to knock any user, site, or server right off the Internet."

Test Your ports.

Oren

[tom_sawyer70]

The adage was a combination of a few things...the expanding market (the growth of people buying PCs was increasing every year) and forced obsolesence (purposeful incompatibilities for OS upgrades, forced hardware upgrades and application upgrades).

It's always been amazing that each version of Windows made third-party apps magically break while the virii unleashed could infect every generation of the OS. Or that the lunar modules required a mere 32K of RAM to get to the moon, but to write a letter to my mother on Windows XP requires almost 512MB RAM and 5 minutes to boot just to type "hello."

But then, the virus writers didn't have the vested interest in breaking our applications.

For the most part, the "need" to constantly upgrade was marketing and advertising. My version of DOS-based WordPerfect had capabilities that Word does not have to this day, but that people have upgraded 3, 4 times. However, when you look at the upgrade market, you see that many people (home users primarily) have not upgraded from the Win98/ME days.

[J. Clarke]

That's a denial of service attack. It doesn't matter what OS you are running because it doesn't put anything on your machine--the objective is to generate so much bogus traffic that legitimate traffic can't get through.

The same technique will work against a Windows machine, a Linux machine, a BSD machine, a Mac, a Unix box, a mainframe, or any other system.

And as always it can't figure out what to do with my machine.