Cleaner Windows
Does Microsoft deserve the criticism it received for pushing users towards its more recent operating systems?
Following a flood of complaints and stories in the media, Microsoft has done a U-turn over its support for Windows 98 and has agreed to extend its support of the popular operating system, which still accounts for 39 million of Microsoft's installed base.
Critics of the software giant slammed the vendor after hearing the initial news that it planned to withdraw support.
They claimed it was merely another strategy for Microsoft to get users to migrate to its other platforms when they either don't want to or don't need to. But does Microsoft deserve the criticism it received?
In many ways Microsoft is between a rock and a hard place. If it encourages users to migrate to a more robust and secure platform it gets labelled a bully, and if it doesn't it could come under fire if the latest generation of 'superworms' exploit a known security vulnerability in, for example, Windows 98.
At the same time the company is ploughing money into support and infrastructure that only it can provide, namely in the form of patches for problems that are addressed in later versions of Windows.
Nevertheless it is good to see the company listening to the needs of its users. While it is true that many users are quite happy with Windows 98 (I have been happily running the OS for many years) and don't feel the need to change or to upgrade hardware and peripherals to run with new OSs, there is a growing business case for migrating to later editions of Windows.
This is primarily due to security reasons. Although patches are available to plug gaps in security, they have to be well managed to ensure the OS is secure, especially because new viruses look for ways to circumvent firewalls and hit machines that are not up to date with the latest security patches.
Although some users still remember the days when so-called upgrades such as Windows Many Errors - sorry, Millennium Edition - caused more problems than they fixed, the XP OS does appear to be a good vintage that, like 98, will provide end-users with a secure and reliable platform for many years, and should prove well worth the upgrade.