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Mozilla Corp. will drop support for the almost-obsolete Windows 98 and Windows Millennium operating systems when it releases Firefox 3.0 sometime in 2007, the company said last week.

Surprisingly, the decision -- which closely followed a move by Microsoft not to patch a critical bug in Windows 98 and Millennium -- was met with some resistance.

One contributor to Bugzilla, the database of fixes for Firefox and other Mozilla software, immediately added a "counter bug" entry questioning the decision.

"Mozilla is running on some other platforms having smaller numbers, so why kill Win98?" wrote someone identified as Hermann Schwab. "If you want to kill it, please don't do it silently in the backyard by checking in something in the trunk, but do a survey about market shares of OS in the new installed (or updated) Firefox."

Mozilla developer Gervase Markham, however, proposed knocking out support for Windows 98 and Millennium not with next year's Firefox 3.0, but starting with Firefox 2.0, which is scheduled to release in August.

"The key point is that after July 11th, 2006, Microsoft will no longer be providing even critical security updates for any of the Win 9x family," Markham wrote on his blog. "I argue that continuing to support these operating systems in a browser or other Internet-facing product after vendor security support ceases is actually irresponsible, because it gives users the idea that they can continue to safely use those operating systems for surfing the Internet."

Users commenting on Markham's blog were almost unanimously against his idea. A sample was a message by someone identified only as "Alfonso."

"If Firefox 2 works in 98 I can't understand a good reason to say [to] those users, 'Hey, we won't give you this version. We know that it works, but we don't like your OS, so move away and leave us alone.'"

"If Firefox 2 works in 98 I can't understand a good reason to say [to] those users, 'Hey, we won't give you this version. We know that it works, but we don't like your OS, so move away and leave us alone.'"

DPDarkPrimus wrote:This is troubling for me, because the family computer runs ME, and I have no fucking idea how I am going to convince my mother to spend $100+ on a copy of Windows XP and having to do a complete reinstall on that aging beast sitting in our living room.

Don't say "just get a new computer". She would only replace it if it literally stopped working. And in that case, I'd have to go bargin hunting and assemble the thing piece by piece for like $200 total.

General Zod wrote:

DPDarkPrimus wrote:This is troubling for me, because the family computer runs ME, and I have no fucking idea how I am going to convince my mother to spend $100+ on a copy of Windows XP and having to do a complete reinstall on that aging beast sitting in our living room.

Don't say "just get a new computer". She would only replace it if it literally stopped working. And in that case, I'd have to go bargin hunting and assemble the thing piece by piece for like $200 total.

You could always just convince her to find someone with a copy of Windows 2000 available on eBay or such. No need to go full out for XP when 2k will do the trick for the most part.

General Zod wrote:

DPDarkPrimus wrote:This is troubling for me, because the family computer runs ME, and I have no fucking idea how I am going to convince my mother to spend $100+ on a copy of Windows XP and having to do a complete reinstall on that aging beast sitting in our living room. Don't say "just get a new computer". She would only replace it if it literally stopped working. And in that case, I'd have to go bargin hunting and assemble the thing piece by piece for like $200 total.

You could always just convince her to find someone with a copy of Windows 2000 available on eBay or such. No need to go full out for XP when 2k will do the trick for the most part.

Soontir C'boath wrote:

General Zod wrote:

DPDarkPrimus wrote:This is troubling for me, because the family computer runs ME, and I have no fucking idea how I am going to convince my mother to spend $100+ on a copy of Windows XP and having to do a complete reinstall on that aging beast sitting in our living room. Don't say "just get a new computer". She would only replace it if it literally stopped working. And in that case, I'd have to go bargin hunting and assemble the thing piece by piece for like $200 total.

You could always just convince her to find someone with a copy of Windows 2000 available on eBay or such. No need to go full out for XP when 2k will do the trick for the most part.

Or check if you or your friends' college have a deal with Microsoft selling Windows XP. My university sold them to students for seven dollars.

DPDarkPrimus wrote:This is troubling for me, because the family computer runs ME, and I have no fucking idea how I am going to convince my mother to spend $100+ on a copy of Windows XP and having to do a complete reinstall on that aging beast sitting in our living room.

Don't say "just get a new computer". She would only replace it if it literally stopped working. And in that case, I'd have to go bargin hunting and assemble the thing piece by piece for like $200 total.

Considering how long windows 3.x took to be phased out, it's about time everyone's working towards phasing out 9.x. Although it's likely to be some time before everyone finally converts to a more modern Windows version.

Pezzoni wrote:Seems fair enough - 98 and ME (especially) are vastly inferior operating systems to 2000 or XP. Do MS even still support 98, come to think of it?

General Zod wrote:At the moment they do, however that support is scheduled to end July 11th of this year.

DPDarkPrimus wrote:God, I talked to my mom yesterday about this. Just like I thought, she's balking at the idea of even spending $50 on the damn computer.

Darth Wong wrote:

DPDarkPrimus wrote:God, I talked to my mom yesterday about this. Just like I thought, she's balking at the idea of even spending $50 on the damn computer.

Can't you play your recent bout with ulcerative colitis for pity points?

DPDarkPrimus wrote:God, I talked to my mom yesterday about this. Just like I thought, she's balking at the idea of even spending $50 on the damn computer.

DPDarkPrimus wrote:I don't know how you come to the conclusion that I/my family is in a dire financial crisis from my mentioning that my mother is a total spendthrift.