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• January 14, 2004 •
This week, Microsoft announced it was extending the Support Lifecycle for Windows 98 / 98SE.
Back in 2002, Windows 98 & 98SE were scheduled to enter "End of Life" on June 30, 2004, while Windows Millennium Edition (ME) was scheduled to reach that stage on December 31, 2005. Last June Microsoft extended the "End of Life" date for Windows 98 & 98SE to January 16th, 2005.
On Wednesday, Microsoft posted this on their Web site:
Key Dates:
This doesn't mean that a lot will change for Windows 98/98SE users, hotfix support & No-charge incident support has long been ended, the only difference is that paid incident support will continue to be available, as well as the continued availability of downloads for existing security issues.
According to Microsoft this was brought about by "continual evaluation of the Support Lifecycle policy revealed that customers in the smaller and the emerging markets needed additional time to upgrade their product".
I think it also has a lot to do with the popularity of Linux in these "smaller and the emerging markets". As long as there is competition, Microsoft will "work" for their money, but when the competition fails (Netscape vs. Internet Explorer), development stalls (nothing much has changed since IE 4.x).
Full details on this announcement are at the Microsoft Support Web site.
A complete overview of Windows Product Lifecycle Dates can be found on the Microsoft Windows Product Lifecycle Web site.
