[Am-info] Microsoft abandons older Windows

[Erick Andrews]

"Thousands of companies and individuals could face security
 headaches and inconvenience as Microsoft stops selling some
 of its older products.

"It has announced it is withdrawing products such as Windows
 98, Windows NT 4 and Outlook 2000.

"The decision was made because the programs contain code
 outlawed under a legal deal with rival Sun Microsystems.

"But a survey has showed that most organisations with more
 than 10 computers still use older products.

"Remove and replace

"The survey was carried out by US firm AssetMetrix.  It found
 that 80% of the organisations it questioned were still using
 Windows 98 and 95.

"Inside those firms, 39% of machines were running the
 venerable operating systems.

"By contrast AssetMetrix found that only 7% of the PCs
 companies were using had the latest Windows operating
 system, XP, installed.  Windows 2000 was the most popular
 operating system.

"The survey covered more than 375,000 machines in 670
 companies some of which had up to 49,000 PCs in their
 organisation. [more...]"

There's a long list of products at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3324471.stm
for anyone who is unfortunate enough to have to use
the stuff.

Erick Andrews