Well it had to happen...but this is where the future is my friends, right here in this forum or many more like it. Support for older stuff will be here and there but there will always be nostalgia for the things that those os's did right and sometimes better than the newer ones (my opinion here) but MS tends to throw the baby out with the bathwater so this was to be expected I think...

Microsoft is (very noticeably) pushing everyone to Vista. I'm surprised they didn't cut SP2 as well...

Just another reason I've broken free of the Windows monopoly and installed Linux, for good.

Just because Microsoft has ended support and patches for these systems it doesn’t mean to say that there insecure. If anything, newer systems at the cutting-edge of technology are probably the most vulnerable, because with increased functionality probably comes increased risk. Windows 9x is old, but this does give it two distinct advantages, firstly there is not much incentive to target an older system and secondly it seems to be reasonably ironed out for what it does support. Much fuss is made over lack of support from Microsoft, Windows 9x actually was a good platform and will probably still be run by millions of users for a while to come (especially in less developed regions), just because no more patches are being made available it doesn’t mean the systems will cease to work. Chances are if it does the job there is no need to upgrade.

I don't believe this.