September 09, 2003

Win98 down the road

Roll your own Windows 98 Reinstallation Kit -- you don't HAVE to spend $200 to "upgrade."

We're leaving here today. Sob! It's painful to say goodbye to Mom & Dad -- it's always so long before we get to see them again. Yuck. But it was a great vacation this year. The cat is going to hate leaving his screened-in porch, and the dog will absolutely miss jumping into the lake.

Posted by Lee at September 9, 2003 10:04 AM | TrackBack
Comments

Well, if you really want to have a Windows 98 installation, all the power to 'ya. I find it a little too long-in-the-tooth - too many professors who are dragging their Win98 PCs have codified my opinions of the older, DOS-based Windows versions: they had their place, but it's time to move on.

I'll stick with OS X and Yellow Dog Linux - one for the newer hardware, one for my older machines.

Glad to read about your trip - sounds like it was a blast!

Oh - and read Franken's new tome! It's a riot, and really, really great!

Cheers!

Rudi

Posted by: Rudi Riet at September 10, 2003 12:48 AM

The reasons those professors are clinging to Win98SE is because 1) they know it and it works 2) why should they change if it works and 3) XP is a pain in the ass. Your comment is pretty judgmental; 98SE is not outdated if it does what they need it to do. Just because YOU don't know it as well as you know OS X doesn't mean it's not a decent OS, plus I bet a lot of these system have customized apps on it that would have to be recoded for use on other OSs. Most people are not geekheads like we are--they just want to be able to do what they need to do without have to learn a new OS every year or so. And I certainly don't blame them. They're not wrong because you're bored!

Been meaning to pick up the Franken book -- thanks for reminding me. If you liked it, I probably will too.

And the vacation was great, just too short. And I wish my parents were less than four hours away rather than 15 hours away--we'd see them a LOT more!

Posted by: lee at September 12, 2003 04:06 PM

Yes, I know: I am a bit heavy-handed. But I'm also heavy-handed about folks who continue to use Mac OS 9. If anything, I'm equal-opportunity about older OS flavors. ;-)

I know that Win98 should work for these profs. But the reason they're calling is because their system is crashing, crashing, and crashing again. They are annoyed and just want their system to work. Few are using anything specialized - mostly using Office, or WordPerfect, or a web browser and email client. While there are a few for whom XP won't fit the bill (e.g. running the aforementioned speclialized programs that won't play nicely in the XP/NT kernel), most could do with an OS upgrade and experience an increase in productivity.

And I'm not bored - I'm frustrated because they're frustrated with their systems. Their problems are my business (hey, it pays the bills), and so I want them to use what's best fortheir own, individual situations. Some are perfectly happy with Win98 or WinME, and they should continue to use them (same goes for Mac OS 9 - there are some folks who have too much invested). It's only those for whom there is no benefit in staying with the older OS that I really wish they'd set aside a day, upgrade and get acquainted with a new friend that has some support life left. That's all.

Happy Monday!

Posted by: Rudi Riet at September 15, 2003 04:14 PM
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