I see you quote earlier about upgrading to XP, anything wrong with Vista?
Does a Dalmation have spots? ;D
I think people were considering the massive leap in hardware requirements of the ‘average’ Win98 machine in order to cope with Vista’s heavy load.
Understood. ;D
I don’t think there’s any need for panic at this stage. I’m expecting avast! 4.8 will be supported 'till around August, September 2010.
I’d go for an Upgrade edition, either XP Pro or xp Home. If you determine that your current hardware won’t cope, upgrade the hardware first and then the XP upgrade installation will install the appropriate drivers. I’ve done many successful upgrades from 98SE to XP Pro or Home. I hate having to set up from scratch (and the XP Migration Wizard is a bit clumsy). That’s probably why I still regularly use my 95 OSR2 PC which started life as DOS on a 286, then installed Windows 3.1, then upgraded to 95 (retaining settings and programs) and IDT Winchip C6 200MMX, and is now Athlon XP 3000+. (It is a dual-boot XP Pro but 95 on this machine is just so fast!)
Hi…
I definately understand your point, however, I’ve seen the “sandwiching” or upgrades of Microsoft OS’s before and it doesn’t always work out for the best. 
This is why I’m such a proponent of “clean installs.” In this case too, a clean install using the NTFS file system is a potential advantage over an upgrade using FAT32, even though original settings and programs can, to some degree, be kept. However, if these programs are absolutely needed and there are no equivelents or newer versions that will run on NTFS, then yes, I would agree it might be worth the risk of upgrading. Just my 2 cents. 
@nightshade: I agree completely with Vladimyr, upgrading to Vista from Windows 98 would be like putting a 1-ton boulder on top of your system. ;D
Best Regards…
Well, nightshade, at least we now know for certain. No more wondering or being in limbo. We now know eventually ALL the support including the Virus Database Updates will cease for Windows 98. True, now there’ll be a bit of a limbo as to exactly WHEN that end of support is. But, Ehhh, I’ll take it for as long as it’s there. Once it’s gone, I’ll have no choice, but to explore some Plan B, whatever that may be. If it is buying some used computer, so be it. I don’t have quite the complex setup of which you speak, nightshade. I have all my stuff on CDs and could easily setup on another computer. But, that’s an absolute LAST resort.
Well, that was the intention… meaning that we would like to support it. However, it turned out later that we couldn’t even move to a new(er) version of the developments tools withou loosing Win9x support.
So, keeping Win9x support would mean to freeze other projects - such as 64bit version; it’s either one, or the other, not both.
Put together with a lot of additional effort that would be needed to support Win9x… it’s really too big price to pay to support the small fraction of Win9x users (about 0.7% right now, and getting smaller and smaller).
avast! 4.8 certainly will be supported for some time (the virus database updates for sure, and if needed, even a program update can be released)…
Great stuff, thanks Igor.
2000, XP, Vista and WinCrap 7 are IMPOSSIBLE to protect, they are based on htm, html and xml driver programs, which explains why these “computing web page” operating systems are so easily infected! One has NO choice other than to allow these junkware OSs to interact completely with an infected site at ALL level of the OS! I think – rightly so – that Avast and all other AV vendors ought stick to the older systems which they can protect! Worst case for 9x/ME: A BROWSER HIJACK AT A PORNO PAGE. Boot safe and delete the &@&& dll.
Dave
Very true, please take note Avast!
:
Sooner or later Win 95/98/… have to die…
Probably the time has come now… :-\
I think it is the right choice to leave the old behind and look into the future…
It would be a pity if lots of new features couldn’t be included into Avast! just because of less than 0.7 % of Win 98 users…
yours
onlysomeone
Totally disagree with you. Surely you must realise that 98 was a preferred system to the junk of XP & Vista.
All vendors should be encouraged to follow MS EOL timetable as these have extended support completed as well. This dropping of support by MS makes devlopment for 3rd party software much more difficult. Windows 98 EOL was July 11, 2006 and for Avast to go three years or more beyond that, well …they should be congratulated, not scolded by users who want that support.
While you may disagree with the security issues, the UAC, protected mode, kernal protection and standard user accounts (plus other features based on version) make Vista the software that is more secure in todays world than Win 98. But all the security issues of OS are for another board…
Well, this is your point of view and I find it okay, as everyone is different in what he likes and what he doesn’t like…
I don’t think that XP or Vista are junky in any way…
I really like the features XP, Vista, or now Seven bring… I love Aero/Dream Scene/…, I like and use many tools like the “Snipping Tool” which helps me to easily make captures of the screen and post them to the forum to help others…
Now that I used this new OSs i never would like to go back… I still can remember installing individual drivers and software for any USB stick i plugged in… what took me much time in the past happens automatically in a part of a second today…
So there are many improvements for me… probably you’d see this different…
Everyone like he wants
The OS works and does what we want it to do, so we don’t want to upgrade, please understand this.
Same here NightShade, (OS ME) Just read the problems the other OS Systems are having right here. I will really miss mine when it will no longer be able to run.
I do understand!
But somewhen you will have to upgrade… and then you can enjoy lots of new and really cool stuff
yours
onlysomeone
Ok, we upgrade, then we find DRM issues when downloading and playing music files, just one problem with the likes of the newer OP systems!
I had been told that 95/98 users could pretty much expect support to last till at least to the end of 2009 and perhaps some of 2010.
But for onlysomeone to come on and say that 95/98 are ready to die now is just crazy.
Hines,
Once support finally dies for 98 have you ever considered not running an AV progam at all? Some people have said to me that they don’t use an AV program on their system as they are careful what sites they visit and what files they execute, so if you want to continue to run 98 then you can.
I have not had a windows update now since the MS support drop, and have had no problems since then.
Now I am not saying that this is the correct thing to do, what I am saying is that 98 is perhaps not the target for spyware/viruses like it was a few years ago.
The problem is not ‘the OS does what you want it to do’ but what it ‘can’t’ do in relationship to avast (and many other applications). avast! want to make changes to better protect the majority of systems. Already some of these improvements don’t work in win9x/winME, but fortunately they are able to be discarded in older OSes.
The problem comes when avast wants to make changes in the core functionality of avast that isn’t supported in older OSes and this is I believe where we are now with avast 5.0. For those on older OSes Alwil have said they would be supported to the end of the year and that is in the form of the avast 4.8 version still being available for those OSes. So at the end of that period who knows if that will continue.
Alwil has been very good in providing a free version for those who can’t really afford the Pro version, but that generosity has to be tempered with how much it costs to continue supporting older OSes that even MS abandoned years ago.
Moving to version 5.0 yet still maintaining compatibility with win9x, winME for what they have planned isn’t possible without holding back the newer OSes, effectively that could lose avast the higher protection that will come with that upgrade. So for a period of time they will have to devote time and money maintaining 4.8 and its VPS update system and updates in support a dying OS with less and less users; at some point that will have to end and that is unfortunately a commercial reality.
So understand this, at some point in time there will be zero AV support for win98, winME, then will your OS do what you want of it and I presume being able to use your system and be protected from malware.
I’m not telling you to upgrade your OS, simply telling you how it is, avast 5 won’t support win98 or winME as has been stated on numerous occasions already. At this point in time with July as the likely release date for avast 5 there is no way they could re-engineer it to be compatible with win98 and retain what improvements that are planned.
Neither do I. I understand the ones who use old OS, but, it’s inevitable that they dye…
Oh, I think the OS shouldn’t be as integrated with browsers (and the opposite) as XP and Vista are.