[Elecraft] How many Windows users are using Windows 98 SE?

[Don Wilhelm]

Dick,

I would think that most users are running XP and above at this point in 
time.
A wise user will not connect a computer running a no longer supported OS 
to the internet because it is prone to virus attacks and other 'nasties'.

I am fighting the same decision point as Win XP will not be supported 
after March 2014, so I will be forced to upgrade to Win 7 or another OS 
to keep my computers connected to the internet.  Right now, I do not 
think much of Win8, so I put that in the books with Win ME and Vista.  I 
may move my ham station and workbench computers to Ubuntu because of the 
cost of the upgrade to Win7, but that decision remains to be seen as the 
March 2014 date approaches.

I would suggest that those customers using Win 98 and Win2K are far and 
few between, and you should move to the newer compiler.  Those were good 
operating systems, but I would not connect any of those to the internet 
for surfing safety reasons.
It would be nice if the new compiler would be 'backwards compatible' as 
many applications were (with great difficulty) when I was working at 
IBM.  That 'backwards capability' was a cord that had to be severed at 
some point in time.  Win 98 is now gone by the wayside for many years, 
and I believe that support for it could be dropped with only problems 
from a very few customers.

Perhaps there are a few that would want to use 'sneaker net' and 
download the firmware update files on an internet connected computer and 
then transport those files to a non-supported OS computer on a USB stick 
or other media, but I would think that would be the exception rather 
than the rule.  Just my humble opinion.  If that number is large enough 
for consideration, you would need to keep the old compiler, but that 
remains to be seen in the responses that you receive.

73,
Don W3FPR

73,
Don W3FPR

On 5/28/2013 5:23 PM, Dick Dievendorff wrote:
> I've been building the various Elecraft utilities (K3 Utility, KX3 Utility,
> P3 Utility, KPA Utility, XG3 Utility, K144XV Utility and XG3 Utility) with a
> 2005-era compiler, because that's the most recent version of the Microsoft
> Visual Studio C++ compiler that generates executables that will run on
> Windows 98 SE.
>
>
> I'd like to move to a more modern compiler, but the resulting code they
> generate will run only on Windows XP and later.  That is, Windows XP,
> Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.
>
>   
>
> Would you be inconvenienced by this change?  I'm hoping there aren't many.
>
>   
>
> Please let me know if you need the Windows versions of the Elecraft
> Utilities to run on Windows OS prior to Windows XP, and what OS you have.
>
>   
>