Re: This isn't true. There are systems being sold today with 256 MB of memory on the cheap. Do they page and swap? Sure they do. Is this ideal? No. But it works for some customers. And you could extrapolate that to 64-bits as well.
What are you saying? That 64-bits would have made such a system run better? Otherwise, why bring it up? It certainly doesn't seem to enforce your position.
Re: As far as the upgrade considerations go, consider that the new
WMF hole in Windows 98/ME is a killer problem and that Microsoft plans no fix for it. ars technica is recommending that users upgrade. An XP upgrade is $100 to $150 retail to
just home. In most cases, users would be better off upgrading
their hardware. If XP Home loses security updates in 2007,
that's another reason to upgrade hardware. Especially if that
forces you into Windows Vista. Windows XP Pro is an option
but you're paying $150 to $200 of something that's going EOL
two years later.
How long did it take Microsoft to end support on Win98/ME? It's an 6-8 year old operating system, so of course Microsoft is not obliged to support it, especially since they have launched Win2k and WinXP in the mean time. As a rule of thumb, I would expect MSFT to support WinXP users for a couple of years after Vista launches, so by late 2008, if you haven't upgraded your OS, you probably should. Of course, none of this precludes the purchase of a 32-bit Core Duo, since even 32-bit CPUs will be able to run Vista.
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