Win98/95 still ‘most popular’
A Canadian company’s research implies that analysts who predict Microsoft’s abandonment of Windows 98 and 95 won’t have much effect on businesses could be wrong.
"Inventory data of over 370,000 PCs – from over 670 companies ranging in size from 10 to 49,000 PCs – found that over 80% of the companies were still using Windows 98 or Windows 95," says Ottawa-based AssetMetrix here.
"In those companies, an average of 39% of PCs were running Windows 98 or Windows 95."
Microsoft won’t be offering support for either operating system after January, although it said it might still release security patches if "threats appear serious enough".
Ottawa-based AssetMetrix has an asset management service aimed at helping corporations to identify PCs running both operating systems, and develop migration strategies towards Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
"We noticed that the number of Windows 98-based PCs was higher than we would have anticipated," says Steve O?Halloran, managing director, AssetMetrix Research Labs. "While anecdotally there are a few reasons for the retention of Windows 95 or Windows 98 systems, our data indicated that the major driver is a direct result of delaying PC refreshment purchases during the recent economic slowdown."
October 4th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
Where was this blog a year ago? Great article ()! Can you believe I was searching for Operating Systems when I fond this post Friday.