“It looks like Microsoft is getting users of its operating systems coming and going. Microsoft’s next generation Vista OS may prove too much for older computers, but the company has announced it will no longer support the Windows 9x code base as of later this summer. Luddites who want to stick with Windows 98/SE/ME will be cut off from any further public and technical support for the aging operating systems after July 11, 2006, including all security updates,” Andy Patrizio writes for Internet News. “The delays in shipping Vista had a lot to do with giving the old Windows 9x code base an extended lease on life. Microsoft initially planned to end support for the 9x line as far back as 2002 and set a few dates to end support since then, but held off due to Windows XP and Vista’s lateness. The company will continue to provide Windows 98 and ME help topics through its Web site until at least July 2007, but the loss of security updates will be the main concern.”
Patrizio writes, “Power users may sneer at the thought of using the rickety Windows 9x code base, but Jupiter Research has found that one in four homes with more than one PC is running the old operating system, usually on a hand-me-down PC for the kids. The lack of Internet security may force some people to upgrade, and guess which software company benefits in that scenario?”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Bruce” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Which software company benefits in that scenario? That’s easy: Apple. Microsoft’s brain dead bad timing on this support issue only adds to Apple’s “Windows of Opportunity.” Pretty strangely, especially due to recent evenets, Patrizio ignores the potential benefit to Apple in his article. Of course, most of these “Luddites” won’t do a thing until the hardware physically breaks down, but a certain percentage will be in the market for a new PC. Really, if you want to get a new PC now, why would you waste your money on one that’s OS-limited (Windows-only from the likes of Dell, HP, Toshiba, Sony, Lenovo, Mom & Pop white box, etc.) when you can get a Macintosh that’s OS-universal and can run both Mac OS X, iLife, and other great Apple Mac-only applications along with Windows and all of your old Windows applications? Hint: use Mac OS X for your online banking and for everything else that involves information that you’d like to keep secure. Letting Windows-only users bring along their Windows “insecurity blanket” for the time being (they’ll learn quickly) and running both two major OSes with the ability to run all of the applications for the price of one computer is tough to beat.
Advertisements:
• Apple’s brand new iPod Hi-Fi speaker system. Home stereo. Reinvented. Available now for $349 with free shipping.
• Apple’s new Mac mini. Intel Core, up to 4 times faster. Starting at just $599. Free shipping.
• MacBook Pro. The first Mac notebook built upon Intel Core Duo with iLife ’06, Front Row and built-in iSight. Starting at $1999. Free shipping.
• iMac. Twice as amazing — Intel Core Duo, iLife ’06, Front Row media experience, Apple Remote, built-in iSight. Starting at $1299. Free shipping.
• iPod Radio Remote. Listen to FM radio on your iPod and control everything with a convenient wired remote. Just $49.
• iPod. 15,000 songs. 25,000 photos. 150 hours of video. The new iPod. 30GB and 60GB models start at just $299. Free shipping.
• Connect iPod to your television set with the iPod AV Cable. Just $19.
Related articles:
Pre-Boot Camp report: Apple could double market share on Microsoft defections – April 13, 2006
Microsoft Windows Vista Beta running on Apple Intel-based Mac – April 10, 2006
Dude, you got a Dell? What are you, stupid? Only Apple Macs run both Mac OS X and Windows! – April 05, 2006
Microsoft’s inability to ship Windows Vista leaves door open for Apple – March 23, 2006
Has anyone seen Microsoft support dual booting OS X to give there patrons an improved option in the world of software…..I think not.
So what is all the hype about Windows computers doing only windows now?
Apple did OSX and Windows does XP until last week.
Now Apple helps it consumers to be non-monoply and Windows still does not supporting the second largest OS. Is it fear of allowing choice? Or is it fear of losing market share? Or is it fear of allowing a comparsion to what they offer and then have to stay to a larger base of customers that we had the idea years before Apple and we just released it after Apple because they stole from us.
The stole it, they worked faster than us, but really we had it first. Sorry, you just get it last. But we have the largest market share!
Come on guys…. look with you eye wide open and not wide shut.
Peace…out of here
If you don’t do games, then you have no real reason to hang on to the bug-ridden Windows system. There’s precious little about a Mac that isn’t easier and better than Windows, and now with Boot Camp you can run those business apps that some people still hang on to that are Windows-only.
Mac OS definitely has a future – Apple’s market may be tiny, but they are extremely profitable, due to the Mac AND the iPod. But even before the iPod’s runaway success, Apple had 3-4 billion (with a B) in the bank, and no debt. Now with the iPod and a runaway market they have over 8 BILLION dollars to spend however they want. Buying new technologies, continuing to develop the Mac, and improving the iPod, plus whatever new they dream up.
So no, Apple is not about to become an iPod company. The iPod only accounts for roughly 1/3 of Apple’s sales.
It is standard practice for IT firms to ‘draw a line in the sand’ on when they stop providing support for a product they no longer sell. Most seem to provide support seven years after they last finished selling it (not from its release date otherwise XP would be out by 2008!). IBM, SUN, HP, Dell & Apple do the same.
MS should be commended for supporting its products this long, but I am not sure of the date when MS stopped selling Windows 95.
The issue in my mind is: when will MS, box-makers and software developers stop producing software that supports Windows 95/98/ME. This will hurt old users in the same way it has hurt us Mac users, but magnified x50 around the world.
Steve has endorsed Windows on a Mac and now the Stevefollowers are bowing to the word of Steve.
The is so unbelievable.
Mac people, who a week ago thought Windows was the devil, are now scrambling to justify why they love Windows on a Mac!!!
ROTFL!
PC Apologist
“…MDN never described Macs as “OS-limited” before they opened up to Windows…”
Boot Camp is a Paradigm Shift, only someone who doesn’t see the ramifications of the sea change that something like Boot Camp causes would make a statement like that.
Before Boot Camp
Mac = (OS X ) PC = (Windows)
After Boot Camp
Mac = ( OS X [Windows] )
Translation:
Before they were essentially mutually exclusive, now Windows is a subset of OS X, i.e. Macs can run both.
Please Explain says: “Also, isn’t Apple going to become and iPod-only company? I keep reading that around here.”
Where is “around here?” M$’s Redmond ghetto? You’ve been reading the M$ Times Brainwash With Ballmer column again.
el Predicto, such shortsightedness is so, well, predictable. I am an avid Mac user who also has a Dell at the office KVM’ed to my ACD 23. I use the Dell for maybe 60-120 seconds per day. With Parallels, and what will likely be similar functionality in Leopard, I can dispense with the second machine.
But here’s the part your small brain doesn’t get: it’s not that Mac users now love Windoze. They love the fact that their machines, in contrast to every other WinBox out there, can run all three main OSes. Yours cannot, can it? Can it? Bueller?
That’s the point you miss. Yep, I am crowing because my MBP, on which I do not run Windoze, CAN run Windoze. Remember that Apple is in the business of selling hardware, and maybe just maybe you can get why this matters. It has zero to do with the inherent qualities of Windoze, and is all about the raw superiority of our hardware.
Last week, Windows was crap.
This week, whether or not you’re using Boot Camp or Parallels Workstation, Windows is STILL crap.
I predict that NEXT week, Windows will CONTINUE to be crap.
Poppycock – They love the fact that their machines, in contrast to every other WinBox out there, can run all three main OSes.
Hee, hee but two of them aren´t OSX and so one could use their hardware just to run the two that aren´t OSX. But the majority who do that will be current Apple owners that are running them.
Windows users are not going to buy an Apple computer to run windows.
“Apple is in the business of selling hardware” Apple is a hardware company….yeah, okay, Poppycock..so is Dell and Sony and who ever else.
So now the Apple runs Windows and Apple is a hardware company, so then Apple can now stop making OSX. Business of selling hardware, my butt.
“the raw superiority of our hardware.”
Apple´s Intel chip is superior to Dell´s Intel chip. Okay, got it. LOL.
The lack of Internet security may force some people to upgrade, and guess which software company benefits in that scenario?”
—
Hehehe…
My friend upgraded Win 9x to Win XP couple years ago.. and I remember the first thing that happened.. he was hit by a ton of viruses that had been sitting on his computer, dormant.. waiting for him to ‘upgrade’…
He gets a brand new computer, and he’s trying to resuscitate the thing for the first few hours out of the box.
Ahhh… A look at how the other side lives …
mike: “he was hit by a ton of viruses that had been sitting on his computer, dormant.. waiting for him to ‘upgrade’…
He gets a brand new computer, and he’s trying to resuscitate the thing for the first few hours out of the box.”
———————–
TOTAL B.S. FUD.
The guy takes his windows computer out of the box, starts it up and has “tons of viruses” on it. What
TOTAL B.S. FUD.
mike, you have zero credibility with your continuing FUD stories regarding Windows.
There is a DIFFERENCE in “forced” upgrades when one costs you money and one is FREE as with iTunes.
Yes, I know a couple who has been using a Win98 machine and has talked about upgrading it for 6 years but it’s just not a priority.
Other than surfing the net, they could care less about what a Pc can acutually be used for. They let their daughter play some kids games – HUGE MARKET – most kids under the age of 9 don’t really care that much about the OS – they just want to play …
So that’s Apple’s angle to get these “we don’t anything powerful” – if their kids are creative and if you want to preserve their grwoing years, you have to get a mac … oh by the way, you can play all these literally MILLIONS of kids games and educational stuff that will never get upgraded.
“But I still do not understand the market share thing….Most people I speak with will drive a BIMMER before a Chevy or Honda. But the market share is so much smaller? But the product is perceived as being better. Yet when it comes to computers, people look at market share to decide which is better?”
I totally agree with NGC598. I can think of no other field in which high-end products must apologize for being more expensive than their mass market cousins. The ability to tell the difference between a BMW and a Chevrolet, obviously, is something not everyone is born with; and this may be especially true in relation to something as complex as a computer. The irony is that many people who will buy a Mac because it is fashionable would never have bought one because it’s better.
Any poor bastard that has been using Windows ME all these years deserves new hardware and a new OS.
Perhaps a lucky few will even get a Mac with Tiger on board.
How is this any different than apple dropping OS 9 support? Where is classic when you need it?