As of yesterday, July 11, 2006, Microsoft will no longer support or provide updates to Windows 95, 98, 98SE, or ME, even though they estimate between 50 and 70 million users are still running these operating systems.
I have only one computer left running Win98SE. It is an old Gateway tower with a 600MHz Pentium III processor. I have slower computers running XP, so I can probably upgrade, but since this is primarily the kids' computer and used mostly for running (very old) kids games I have not felt the need.
Indeed, for a month or two we had my wife's new computer using their monitor during a transition from her old notebook and we tried a couple of the kids' games on it. There were a few troubles, including programs that wouldn't run or that would crash regularly or failed in some operation (printing, saving, etc.)
We'll probably keep using this PC as is. There's nothing critical on it and the kids are well trained. Virus protection is in place and they only surf to a small number of sites that are vetted in advance by me or 6/10ths (my better half). We've never had a virus or worm, so I suspect that we'll be okay for the next 6 months or so. Heck, if I don't get laid off by my employer this August I might celebrate by buying them a new, faster computer with an LCD monitor!
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you don't want one of those shiny new El See Dee monitors, William-Bob. you need a trustworthy, reliable See Are Tee monitor. Why, I have two of them sitting in my garage, both available at a Special Price, Just For You.
FWIW, I have an old laptop here - Pentium 500 MHz - that won't run anything more recent than Win98SE (it doesn't meet the minimums).
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