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Tuesday, August 9th, 2005, 4:54 am

Windows 95/98/2000/ME Users Snubbed

Internet Explorer 7 screenshot
Internet Explorer 7

Miscrosoft are slowly letting users of older Windows versions ‘off the leash’. Put differently, old machines are left out there, exposed as easy prey in a world of predators. Windows 98 has not been supported for over 6 months or a year (as far as my recollection goes). Windows 2000 (and ME) support will possibly be conceded too, but maybe it was just rumoured in UseNet. According to a recent survey, half of all businesses in the United States still use Windows 2000. The implication: no patches, no software updates, which lead to saturation of viruses, Trojans, inability to open proprietary (e.g. Office) documents and so forth.

Internet Explorer 7, a recent project that touched the headlines, will be compatible with Windows XP (or later) only1. This essentially pushes, if not forces, many Windows users to buy new computers or purchase new licences for an operating system that offers merely no added value beyond flash. Since XP is widely known to be a memory hog, an ‘upgrade’ from Windows 2000 will often require new hardware too.

A long-time Windows advocate refused to accept this move by Microsoft and recently urged his readers and followers to stick with Mozilla Firefox. He also noted that Internet Explorer 7 will continue to disobey compliancy requirements. It probably will not pass the Acid 2 test, which most other browsers (all major ones) have passed successfully. Even the humble Konqueror passed the test around June or July this year.

There exists a solution to this platform compatibility issue, but Microsoft loathe it. The solution is Java Runtime Environment (JRE) — the fear of any company whose aim is to monopolise using dot net, much as they did with VB last decade. Java (or any other cross-platform, virtual-machine language) is the reason I can run Firefox 1.0.4 on an old Windows 98 laptop. Java is also the force that motors much of the Open Source movement with products like Thunderbird and RSSOwl (an RSS aggregator).

1 Some argue that this will motivate all Windows 98, 2000 and ME users to install Firefox. Quite importantly, the words regarding IE7‘s XP-only compatibility still need to be spread. Firefox 1.5 is due to come out next month.

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