IE 5.x gone-Another nail in Windows 95 Coffin

[Mark Holtz]

I hate when this happens...

As of March 20th, 2003, (but only discovered today by me), Internet Explorer 5.x is NO LONGER AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD from Microsoft's Site. This is the last version of Internet Explorer available that could run on Win95.

So now, I'm searching for Internet Explorer 5.5 on CD-ROM for our end users.

[Mark Holtz]

Figures. Do some searching and come up with http://browsers.evolt.org/ . Saved my bacon.... again....

[James_F]

Or just use Mozilla, Netscape or Opera... I'm assuming this is for your IPS job huh? Hope you aren't on Win95. :eek2:

[Mark Holtz]

No, we are running Windows 2K using TeraTerm to actually access the servers.

However, some of our end users are using hand-me-down machines running Windows 95. Support-wise, they are similar to Windows 98, but Windows 98 has more functionality than Windows 95 like USB support, plus many additional driver upgrades. Off the top of my head:
* Windows 95 had a problem with various AMD processors (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;192841)
* "Out of Memory" Error Messages with Large Amounts of RAM Installed (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;253912) in 95, 98, and Me.

MicroSoft's Life Cycle Roadmap (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle.mspx)
Nowadays, the minimum standard for a Windows program is Windows 98, and for some good reasons. Windows 98 and Me, however, are also on the support chopping block. The next release of Office will require a minimum of 2000 or XP.

Our company's official support policy at this time is Windows 95 or later or Mac OS 8 or later. Support for Windows 3.11 and earlier and Mac System 7.5.x and earlier ceased at 11:59 PM on December 31st, 1999. If someone has a box THAT old, or is using a console game system or Linux system, then all we can give is the settings. (But, then again, Linux users know what they are doing anyways.)

[Steve Mehs]

I wonder when WIN98 will start to be not supported. Office 2003 won't be supported by WIN98, but hopefully future versions of IE will be for a while.

[Mark Holtz]

According to Microsoft's web site, support for Windows 98 ends this summer. Already, Microsoft has stopped certifying drivers for Windows 98 already.

[Steve Mehs]

Damn! Guess I'll look more seriously into WIN2K Pro.

[gcutler]

Originally posted by Steve Mehs
Damn! Guess I'll look more seriously into WIN2K Pro.


Steve, We've all talked so much about it, I'm not sure who said what and why. But why not jump to XP Pro. If anything that will buy you another 2+ years of support compared to W2KPro. Once I got the most updated drivers, I found XP to be very stable.

[Steve Mehs]

To tell you the truth I just don't know :) I've always thought a lot of WIN2K and shuned away from XP. No real reason, but like you said XP will be supported longer the 2K. I guess it will all depend on what good deals I can find at the next computer show :)

[Rick_EE]

I have XP pro and 2K pro machines. I find them both stable and XP is more feature-rich. Plus XP has more stuff to force backward-compatability. Based on my own personal experience, I would buy XP over 2K in a second.

[sampatterson]

I second that. XP is a very good OS and on par with W2K, but much easier to setup/wealth of drivers.

[gcutler]

Originally posted by Steve Mehs
To tell you the truth I just don't know :) I've always thought a lot of WIN2K and shuned away from XP. No real reason, but like you said XP will be supported longer the 2K. I guess it will all depend on what good deals I can find at the next computer show :)

As long as you make sure you have XP compatible drivers for all your components, you should be fine. Alot of early problems with XP was lack of updated drivers. A year ago Corporate Edition Norton Anti-Virus required an upgrade from 7.5 ro 7.6 to run under XP (not a free upgrade), last month I found (may have been there for months) Norton released a 7.5 driver to upgrade to make everything work fine on XP. So what was an incompatability was really artifically in place by the vendor until convinced otherwise :D

[Mike123abc]

I believe Microsoft has a 5 year support cycle on most of its software. 98 will fade this year, ME should go in 2 years (I bet Microsoft wishes they could kill it earlier!). In a couple years 2000 support should be dropped. It is a clever plot to force you to buy a new computer every 5 years.

I really like XP Pro. I have one machine out of 10 that runs 2000 still, and I will probably update it this summer. You really can treat XP Pro like 2000. All the same commands and programs are there for administration.

[gcutler]

I somewhat agree with the MS point of view, because having to support SW over a certain age gets harder and harder, and patches and such becomes impossible to keep up with. At least you know ahead of time 5 years (give or take) is the life span. But if it wasn't for their Controlling postion in the industry they might have a different point of view.

[Steve Mehs]

I don't think I'll have any proplems with drivers, my modem drivers are certified for XP, I have the latest 3DFX drivers from Voodoofiles.com (thanks to James :)). I just have to get updated sound drivers and printer and scanner. All my software should work on XP fine, except Easy CD Creator, which I should have version 6 by then. The only thing I'll miss about installing a new operating system is when my computer starts acting up I can't just pop in the restore disc, take a two hour nap and start reinstalling software.

[firephoto]

So lets see...... I expect a windows update for 98 to break something in the near future if it hasn't already. :( It's not like it took months to get 98 tweaked to perfection or anything. ;)

Actually I only have 98SE on my Toshiba Satellite and an older IBM 720E (that ended up running wingate for the home network). Is 98SE support being dropped too?

If you're just an internet surfer and use some office apps then the linux route might be a good choice for your older machines. Knoppix is a great way to take look at it. http://www.knoppix.net/ Just download the ISO, burn a bootable cd, and reboot and be amazed something like this can run off of a cd. If you like it you can do a knx-hdinstall (carefully) and have it on your hard drive (with atleast 3gb space).