Discussion:
give 98SE & suite to US nonprofit or govt agency
(too old to reply)
Nick_L...@yahoo.com
2020-12-31 22:44:31 UTC
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Free: Windows 98SE and IBM Lotus SmartSuite. Optical discs. Only to nonprofit or government agency in U.S. Helps license compliance or app compatibility. Per: http://brittlebit.org/software/giving-away-windows-98se-and-lotus-smartsuite.html
Isaac Wright
2022-04-19 00:40:33 UTC
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Post by ***@yahoo.com
Free: Windows 98SE and IBM Lotus SmartSuite. Optical discs. Only to nonprofit or government agency in U.S. Helps license compliance or app compatibility. Per: http://brittlebit.org/software/giving-away-windows-98se-and-lotus-smartsuite.html
Why do you only want to give it to government or nonprofit agency instead of just anyone interested in Vintage Tech? U.S. Government doesn't use Vintage Tech.
Nick_L...@yahoo.com
2022-04-23 20:09:43 UTC
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Similarly to an email I sent you before I realized you had posted here:

I don't think it's unfair, but you can disagree and others may, too.

I'm offering to give it away, but limiting the potential recipients as I have is consistent with my priorities and ethical interests, since many other people benefit from the work of governments and nonprofits, and because I can lawfully give it away but can't lawfully sell it (this is not an issue of software licensing but other law where I live).

The U.S. government very much does use vintage software, I think for budgetary reasons. Years ago, the U.S. Navy gave Microsoft a $7 million contract to continue supporting Windows XP, I think past EOL; probably the Navy had apps that ran well on XP but not on the next MS OSes, a common situation when an app is not well written for future platform compatibility. The FAA and the IRS have in various decades been reported to be using years-old software. And, even after MS ended support in the form of patches for the small office home office (SOHO) market, MS continued that support for the education market, where many participants were renting Windows by the year, an option not available to the SOHO market; the education market is likely not individual students but school systems, mostly public. Whether using old software is a false economy is arguable either way. I was using W98SE for many years because it was good enough.
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