Ed Bott

Jake Wilcox has posted what he calls A Bold Proposal: Microsoft should release Windows 98 as freeware. He’s getting lots of publicity after asking Robert Scoble to jump on the bandwagon.

My opinion? This is a terrible, terrible idea. Windows 98 was a worthwhile operating system in its day, but encouraging people to use it today is just wrong. It’s built on an unreliable kernel (remember system resources, anyone?). It is woefully lacking in modern security features. It is incompatible with a large number of new applications.

Windows XP was a watershed. It represented a break with the old 9X code base and a move to the reliable NT kernel. As Service Pack 2 has proved, you can make this operating system extremely secure (and yes, there’s still plenty more work to do). I understand why people continue to use Windows 98, but why should anyone encourage more people to use an obsolete, insecure operating system that falls short of modern standards of reliability and security even after being extensively customized?

Jake, if you want to make a bold proposal, how about encouraging Microsoft to lower the cost of upgrading those old computers to Windows XP? What if the upgrade cost $49 instead of $99 for Windows XP Home Edition? What if Microsoft took the “lite” Windows XP Starter Edition it now sells in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia and released a $29 version for domestic consumption? Even on a seven-year-old computer, I could probably make XP work. It might need a little extra memory and some judicious tweaking, but it would work. And it would be safer and more reliable than an old, unpatched copy of Windows 98.