Win' 98 was my first copy of Windows. I have an old computer that I recently retired (removed OEM's Windows) that I want to install it on. It is a newer (than what Win 98 was ever intended to run on) computer. Will it work fine? Will it just use generic drivers much in the likes of FreeDOS or MINIX or will I have just wasted 40$ ordering this?

if you NEED win 98 ? ( i can not think of one thing on it i would want but...)

run it in a VM
or on a 15 year old computer.

1. Nostalgic Reasons*
2. AbiWord
3. Doesn't Fell The Same
4. I Ripped My Old Old Computer Up

*I Already Ordered It

No sata drivers in Windows 98 to Windows XP (minus sp3).

So hardrive better be IDE or you find a way to find sata driver to load via external medium like usb.

It might run but, and this is even after you gave your list of reasons why, I'd still wonder what use would it have. There is no support for it, you wont want to let it connect to the internet, it will probably, use generic drivers that will make graphics pretty crappy unless you can find OEM drivers that are for W98 or maybe ME.

All in all give it a try of you want to but don't get your hopes up and if it bombs out on you chalk it up to experience.

Personally I think you've wasted 40$ on it. Windows 98 support was dropped in the early 2000's. So if you have a computer which is more recent. Chances are big that Win98 won't run at all. And if it runs expect severe limitations because of not supported hardware etc.

AbiWord has a Linux version. I wonder why you would want it to run on Win98.

For it not feeling the same. That's personal of course.

Anyways, good luck

Wont Puppy Linux, Dream Linux or Debian with LXDE or XFCE run better on old hardware and give better performance and goodness of Linux? Just my opinion though and you are entitled to use your computer the way you want to and spend your money as you like.

Why not use Windows 8, instead? It sucks so much more!

"98" was merely pathetic. Since then, Microsoft has elevated "it sucks" to an art form.

It depends. Windows 98 will have problems if you have more the 512MB of RAM and will not work at all if the CPU is clocked higher than 2.7GHz. It is also not able to use more than 1 CPU or CPU-core. You also may run into problems with modern power-saving features, causing the CPU to produce more heat than it normally does. Besides the problem that you most likely will not find any drivers for it, so probably a large part of your hardware will not work. May be you can give us some info about the hardware.
If you really want to run Windows 98 for whatever reason I would recommend to install a small Linux on that machine and use Virtualbox or Qemu to run Windows.

Win98 lacks support for certain newer hardware. But you can install it inside a VM, then it'll run fine. Recentently I even installed WfW3.11 in Virtualbox (puke!) including Office 2.0 for reasons of nostalgy. There are VB images around which can be downloaded. Put in place they'll run right out of the box, without installation. Which is not legal BTW, W98 is not abandonware AFAIK.

jlinkels

Umm...
Where to start?
Windows 98 will recognize 1.5 GB of memory, If I have more it simply won't use it.
It had xp running on it, so I think it's ide.
Win 98 horrible graphics was one of it's charms.
It is cheaper than any other windows (Win 95 always seems to not have the licence).
I already said I hate vms!!!!!

It is a VAIO desktop modle number PCV-RX550 with a 50G HD (Non Phienox BIOS Settings). It is currently running FreeDOS (No Way FreeDOS Has All The Drivers For My Machine). I will never have to use Internet on it,windows 98 will be second edition. 256 Ms of ram, Pentium 4.

Googled the type you've specified and I've found this:
http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/son...-30060457.html

That just might work. One thing you should keep in mind. As far as I remember Win98 supports no higher than FAT32. Definately not NTFS.
From what I've found. Windows doesn't allow hard disk partitions greater then 32gb using FAT32. So you'll have to split your hard disk into at least 2 partitions.

Be sure to look for Win98 drivers for the hardware to get the most out of it.

I did this a year or two ago for that reason. W98 the first home system I had used. Had 2GB of RAM in an old computer and got the error saying I didn't have enough RAM?? Wouldn't boot so i googled the error and found that the reason was that it had too much RAM?? There appear to be ways around if you care to bother, according to the miscrosoft site below, use at your own risk:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/253912

That shouldn't be a problem. His computer has 256 mb RAM Only with sizes greater than 512 mb will Win98 run into problems.

Nope it will not. Simply,it can't. Technical reasons. Even if you are able (for a reason unknown to me) to run Win98 on more than 512MB. it wil still not use it. Technical limit. Win98<=512MB
Simple as that