Interesting number of people still using Windows 98

[_PD_]

From this link here, Microsoft are ending support for Windows 98. Fair enough. But just look at the results of the poll on the BBC site;


VOTE RESULTS

Do you still use Windows 98?

Yes
33.57%

No
66.43%

13088 Votes Cast


To me, that is well over what I expected! I thought maybe 5%, or even less, but 34% of people still running 98....

 

[Kerplunk]

I thought exactly the same thing when I saw that.

 

[Meatball]

Sheesh! That is a really high number

 

[FreeStream]

Still have a Dell Optiplex GX1 here running Win 98, main machines are all Xp tho.

Any idea on how to overclock the Dell? Tis a P3

 

[Haircut]

Bear in mind the readership of the BBC site will be vastly different to the readership of a site like OcUK.

My parents would still be using Windows 95 if I didn't donate my old PC to them a year or two back.
I would imagine a lot of people have a computer that is several years old, still does the tasks for which they bought it and have no intention of replacing/upgrading.

 

[Phate]

where i worked 5/10 of the machines that come in are 98 and the other half are XP

so i'm not shocked by that tbh

 

[afraser2k]

My parents are still using WinME on their laptop as it still does the job they want (basic office work). They won't see the need to upgrade even with the security concerns.

 

[benjo plz.]

Any idea on how to overclock the Dell? Tis a P3

No. And those ones are notoriously hard to upgrade iirc.

 

[FreeStream]

No. And those ones are notoriously hard to upgrade iirc.

Bah, I want it to crash and burn!

 

[wozzizname]

All us BT engineers are still using Windows 98 running on ancient Panasonic Toughbooks (Pentium 2's ).
This makes for much fun and jollity when we have to do online training (via 56k modem !) with lovely media rich materials. For a large, wealthy Company it's a disgrace.....

 

[Dutch Guy]

Doesn't surprise me tbh, a lot of older PII, PIII systems/laptops run a lot better with Win98 than XP

 

[Raumarik]

Stick windows 98 on a new PC it starts up in a flash

School I work in still has some windows 95 machines I'm trying to replace them but staff actually quite like them.. even though they take about a million years to do anything

 

[The_KiD]

Another point is that most viruses and spyware etc are coded for NT based windows systems, so the 98 users stay relatively problem free.

 

[AJUK]

I think the withrdrawl of support for 98 at this time is an extremely cynical move by M$, Vista is just 6 months away so why not wait until that is about to be released to enable people to upgrade directly to that. By then their pcs will be on their last legs anyway.

This is just a move to boost XP sales at a time when M$ aren't selling much software. 98 is a perfectly serviceable OS for many people and more importantly many companies.

 

[Acolyte]

Heard on the radio something like 60 million worldwide still use Windows 98

 

[Wossi]

We've got a few pcs at work that run 98, they are too old and slow to tun xp and for what they are used for 98 is perfect.

 

[The_KiD]

I think the withrdrawl of support for 98 at this time is an extremely cynical move by M$, Vista is just 6 months away so why not wait until that is about to be released to enable people to upgrade directly to that. By then their pcs will be on their last legs anyway.

This is just a move to boost XP sales at a time when M$ aren't selling much software. 98 is a perfectly serviceable OS for many people and more importantly many companies.

Agreed!

Also whats with end of life for Win2K being in 2010??? and the no IE7 support for anything less than XP ?? it's a bit of a disgrace if you ask me. Win2k is a perfectly robust OS and has very few issues and problems so why are we being forced to upgrade?

Sure XP, 2003 and Vista have some amazing new features but why should we be forced into having them?

 

[KASM]

It wouldn't surprise me if the majority of people who answered that survery didn't know what OS they were running, ask a large number of the british public what operating system they have on their pc and most answer that they have windows and are unaware of which version even though it flashes on screen every time they turn on their pc.

An online scan of over 1000 websites showed that only 3% of visitors were using Windows 98, interestingly enough the same number were using OSX and Linux.

 

[The_KiD]

Not exactly on the same scale as the bbc, but here are the OS stats from my site.

 

[AJUK]

An online scan of over 1000 websites showed that only 3% of visitors were using Windows 98, interestingly enough the same number were using OSX and Linux.

That's 6% of people using a proper OS then.