In case you missed it:
Paid incident support and critical security updates for Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Me will end on July 11, 2006. No other security updates will follow after this date.
– Microsoft Web Site
This is interesting and I’m wondering what kind of security risks will this lead to? Have all the security bugs been found in these versions of Windows? If people still have computers running this OS are those machines capable of running Windows XP? Or Vista? Probably not, so are they going to spend the money on a new OS just so they can run Windows 2000?
I knew this was coming and I was reminded today by a Linux magazine called Tux (Tux is the penguin mascot for Linux) their “selling point” is it’s “The First and Only Magazine for the New Linux User”. I say “selling point” because like the Linux operating system, it’s free also. Do you see where I’m going with this? If you’re thinking of erasing your system anyways, why not try Linux now?
Really the easiest way to try Linux is with some installation CDs or DVDs. Tux really likes the KDE environment but I don’t see downloadable disc images anywhere (that’s clear enough for me to make a recommendation for one distribution) but I do see them for Fedora so I’m going to recommend downloading RedHat Fedora which is what I use (when I use). But if you don’t know how to work with burning ISO images and such the easiest option is probably to just go buy a Linux magazine from some bookstore that comes with CDs/DVDs (but be sure if you don’t have a DVD play you get a magazine with CDs). Or you can pick up a book with a set of CDs or DVD so that you can try it out just make sure the copyright of the book is at least 2006 so you know you’re getting a recent version. Sure it’s different from Windows, but XP is pretty different from Windows 98…
If you aren’t aren’t familiar with the terms “Open Source” or “Linux” you probably don’t want to dabble with this. So skip this and just cough up that $100+ for a new version of Windows (and the $200 for the new version of Office to go with it). That is unless you’re familiar with the term “Free”.
