Microsoft confirms that Windows 98 is end of the line

Stacey Breyfogle, a product manager for Windows 98 at Microsoft, confirmedthis week at Spring Comdex that Windows 98 is the end of the line for theWindows line of operating systems. Though Microsoft will provide minorupgrades to Windows 98 over the next few years, all future operatingsystem releases will be based on Windows NT. When Windows NT becomes thedefacto operating system--sometime after the release of Windows NT 5.0 in1999--Microsoft will split NT into two separate business and consumereditions. Windows CE will remain as Microsoft's OS for low-end, non-PCdevices, she said.

"The next-generation operating system will be based on an NT kernel," saidBreyfogle. "Windows 98 is the last generation of an MS DOS-based system."

Though there's been some confusion lately about the positioning of Windows98, due to NT 5.0's constant delays, Breyfogle says Windows 98 has a clearrole for consumers, not the enterprise.

"The business operating system is absolutely Windows NT," she said. Breyfogle says that 98 is only appropriate for businesses that do not haveor cannot upgrade to hardware that will run NT. Typically, NT systems arehigher-end than Windows 95 or 98 systems. On the other hand, 98 and NT runmuch of the same harder, making future upgrades easier.

"If an application runs on NT, it's pretty much going to run on 98," she said. "It makes it easy to write for NT and then test for 98.