This was taken from a KIM KOMANDO email:
Microsoft announced recently that it will stop support of
Windows 98 in January. This has been telegraphed for some time. While I don't believe it's a critical situation, it's a sign that 98 is aging. You really need to think about moving up from 98 eventually.
Windows 98 came out in June, 1998. So it is pretty old, as
operating systems go. It was supplanted by Windows ME in September, 2000.
It has remained available, but few machines have been sold with 98 in the last three years.