"Mayayana" wrote in news:jhj4qk$fdv$1@dont-
email.me:

| Same goes for decent hardware, the maker
| usually supports it with their own driver. If maker doesn't care enough
to
| do that, it's a BAD idea to use their hardware anyway.
|

I think that's a bit optimistic. I switched to XP from
98 because of hardware. There simply isn't a market
for companies to write drivers. And some, like video
hardware, are products that depend on forced
obsolescence. If they're not constantly convincing
teenagers that their video games are suffering under
last years' chip then they're out of business. And even
the few people who might be running Win98 wouldn't
have any reason to update to such advanced graphics
hardware. But they also can't just go and buy an 8MB
ATI card with Win98 drivers at Staples. The hardware
just isn't there anymore.

I had an interesting experience at one point before I
siwtched to XP. I had just built a new PC. The board was
either Asus or MSI. I've forgotten which. It had a Via
chipset. I went to the site for the board and it said that
Win9x was no longer supported. I then went to the Via
site, which was clear, informative and helpful. It turned
out that Via only had one driver package, and Win98 was
one of the supported systems. So the motherboard maker
apparently just saw a chance to reduce support costs
by lying.




Sounds like you found a way to keep a good thing going.

Forced obsolescense should be a crime. People are being put out of work then
beign punished for being jobless, in an economy that seems to be dying of
multiple organ failure. Firms who force obsolescense for private profit are
the lowest of the low, it's the same as peddling hard drugs at school gates,
or bribing kids into sex games with the promise of a 'sweetie'.

To resist that crap we have to recognise the value of what we have, and not
reject it lazily or stupidly. I usually post in the W98 group so I'm not sure
how much of my thoughts on this get seen by people in the groups this thread
is crossposted to, but I suspect that many using WXP are thinking this way
too, now that Microsoft is telling them they have to move or die.

FIGHT THE POWER. It's more fun that way, almost always.

One good way to resist is to go for recent top-end gear that has fallen in
price and come within reach. If fools want to reject multichannel audio I/O
gear that used to cost a grand, and now sells for a few tens of bucks because
too many people reject it foolishly, I'm ok with that, all the more choice
for me. But apart from selfish reasons like that, I think they should value
it more.