W98 vs. W98SE...

[AplusWebMaster]

??? Recently seeing more and more products (both software and hardware) that list W98SE as a prerequisite.

- Anyone know what W98 doesn't have that W98SE does that makes it more acceptable to these newly released products?

[crockett]

Hi :)

Compared to W98, I think W98SE fixed many bugs, incorporated more drivers, got IE5 integrated to system and had the ability to connect several LAN pc's to the Internet through one single modem (I've read it in Bernard Fabrot's Book Réinstaller Windows, Marabout Editeur, 2000).

In the meantime, a service pack (SP1) was released to fix many W98 bugs and add many drivers to it.

Perhaps SP's for W98 are still to be found somewhere on the web ?!

I don't know why many present-day softs require SE. Should be evaluated on a case-by- case basis.

Not much in this post, but hope it may be of some help to you...

Rgds, Crockett 8)

[crockett]

Hi again :)

BTW, LitePC technology definitely a must for anyone running under W9x/Me.

See http://www.litepc.com/preview.html

Rgds, Crockett 8)

[crockett]

W98SP1 to be found here:

http://www.crm.mb.ca/crm/crcc/CRCC_CD/sevicepacks_w98sp1.htm

or

http://www.terrehautesupersite.com/Downloads.htm

Crockett 8)

[AplusWebMaster]

;) Thanks for all that additional info, Crockett. But the original question remains:

- Why is W98SE named as a prerequisite on many new software and hardware products, W98 not qualified?

[LowWaterMark]

I guess we really need software developers to answer this question. If I were developing software, I'd think I'd want to limit the number of OS versions that I needed to support, and I'd try to stick with the more popular ones at that. I believe Windows 98SE is the most popular version of 98, isn't it? Also, 98SE is still a very popular and large install base world wide, I think.

Isn't there some group that keeps an eye on the install base for Windows OS and provides a percentage breakdown by version? It might be interesting to see what the install base of 98 versus 98SE is?

[AplusWebMaster]

- There is this list from MS:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=234762&product=w98
...but I didn't see anything that great in the way of new features, so it would be nice to hear from a developer on this issue.

I.E.: New products that "require" W98SE:
- Hardware -> http://www.usr.com/products/home/home-product.asp?type=specs&sku=USR5633A
- Software -> http://knowledgebase.scansoft.com/view.asp?tnID=5352