Who was running Windows 98 when parhelia was released?

[borat]

cheers boss, should be XP in the first chice not ME though!

[Kruzin]

oops...updated again

[gangster]

w98, didn't buy a P for over a year as a result and never would have except for cheap deal I found.

[a_h]

Win98. Thought it was a good os, but everybody can make mistakes.

[Belwarrior]

I had to run some programs related to my work in win98 and so i waited for a long time to see if matrox would release a driver for win98 (i think Matrox originally said there would be drivers for all platforms or something like that...) when they announced there wont be any drivers for win98, i got fed up and bought a ati 9500pro and am happily using win98 drivers (tripleboot -> win2k main OS, Suse 9.0 -> for some apps, win98 for other apps).. come to think of it.. ati 9800 are also supported in win98 using ME drivers

[PAugustin]

I got rid of Win9x/Me as soon as XP came out !

I'm only using 2K and XP. 98 and Me are crap !

[borat]

its interesting to note that 20% of us "matrox enthusiasts" didnt buy parhelia because of driver support, a 20% increase in sales would have made a nice bit of bonus sales, and i bet driver developement would have cost less than the increase in sales generated. take a look at the non enthusiast market and this number may have been higher. Just an intersting statistic in history, and also a lesson to be learned, whatever you think, the customer always knows best.

[Ribbit]

I know you said non-Linux people, but I thought I'd chip in anyway.

I was running Linux as my main (work) OS, and Win98 for gaming (and only gaming - not even web browsing or email). At the time I was (and still am) running a G400Max, and the Parhelia looked like the perfect upgrade - a good quality professional card to do work with, and enough 3D performance to make me a very happy gamer. Unfortunately the Linux support turned out to be non-existent (a big disappointment after the G400 experience), and I wasn't going to upgrade Windows just for a few games. Since then I've gone to Win2k (got a 2nd CPU and accidently trashed my '98 partition at the same time, so I thought what the hell), and might even be tempted to go to XP after reading some comments on this board and seeing that XPlite is out. However, I think my next board will be a Sapphire Radeon 9100 if I can find one, then maybe a 9800 or so if the Linux support gets there (or maybe a DeltaChrome - we'll see). Next board after that will be with a new PC, too far into the future to forsee....

Voted '98 - didn't buy.

[Sr17]

I dont understand why some users would buy a Ferrari and use it with little old tires you find in a trashcan.

Windows 98 is a very old OS where program memory separation don't allow to really make them independant. An error in one program may crash all system. And more important, it can corrupt datas.

Everybody MUST get rid of 95-98-ME series operating system. They was here only to maintain compatiblity.

The only problem remaining is for compatibility. Few old games don't work with 2000/XP. Verry few in reality.

And new games work really better with XP.

Use cheap old computer to work with old games. Yes, and also some old games requires also ISA Sound Blaster sound card for the sound to work.

Make a new computer really new and use what you MUST use. It is nonsense to use a Parhelia with windows 3.1.

[borat]

i dont mean to sound harsh here, but no one wants 3.11 drivers, people wanted '98 drivers. In an ideal world we would all have the latest CPU and other bits, latest software and no worries, in reality it takes time to upgrade for lots of reasons. Playing old games is not the MAIN reaosn for using '98, some people have work software which wouldnt port to XP - too costly to redevelope or slow to redevelope. Many joe users would not see the point in XP above 98 - im pretty darn competent and to be fair the way XP feels to use isnt a major leap above 98 - certainly not worth £150. that could be spent on many other things, sure it crashes less but theres no major improvement for joe user who isnt really into his computer. Whether joe user would want a parhelia is debatable, but if he walked into a computer store after a new GFX board and saw unreal surround style, he'd want it - hed probably even think "hmm its £100 more than i wanted to pay - but look its amazing" then someone tells him "yeah but its another £150 for a new OS". then its a no sale. 98 support was about gettin parhelia sales in 2002, not today. No one disputes that, but its not as simple as saying, everyone who doesnt run this set up is a fool, its about generating an revenue for your business by maximising customer base. how would you feel if DOOM 3 came along and it said on the box - "Does not support parhelia, you shouldnt be using it anyway because its old, slow obsolete (no DX9) and has massive production bugs (banding), any one who thinks about running it on this hardware is a fool"?

[Sr17]

In fact, many of us owned a computer with windows 98. If you bought good material, it is still alive. Just don't sell it. Make it good internal cleaning and it's will continue to work ok.

I will say what i said : A multi tweaked machine with multi boot isn't a good solution BECAUSE WINDOWS 98 DO NOT WORK WELL WITH RECENT HARDWARE. When you make a new machine, make it clean. More clean it will be, less problems you will have. Less time you will loss.
And you must consider that working with multiples configurations in one machine is a great loss of time.

Using multiples machines with network is a more efficient solution.

Oh yes, other manufacturers of recent hardware did drivers for '98. But they did it with the foots.
So, in fact, we are so happy when main windows XP hardware drivers works well without crashing.....

And you want a lot of drivers. Funny : It's really hard to have ONE wich is working great. And you whant A LOT OF DRIVERS. You are crazy.

Oh yeah, PEOPLE WANT.

Uh. People might manage to make their brain working before wanting ANYTHING.

[borat]

i run XP, i just want XP drivers, i couldnt give a bugger if win 98 drivers existed or not, or linux drivers for that matter. Matrox should care though, they lost customers because of that, and the last time i checked the best way to run a business is to have as many paying customers as possible. As i said, it doesnt effect me, i just find it interesting that a company can stick 2 fingers up to so many people and not care about them. Its not just this they have done it with, it seems matrox management know better than the customers of the world, pity their sales figures dont show that. Im not havng a bash at you, but you need to see that they should have taken this on board.

[ayoub_ibrahim]

I dual boot win98se & xp.
the lack of win98 support forced me to get an ati card when replacing my G400MAX.

[Sr17]

Originally posted by borat
i run XP, i just want XP drivers, i couldnt give a bugger if win 98 drivers existed or not, or linux drivers for that matter. Matrox should care though, they lost customers because of that, and the last time i checked the best way to run a business is to have as many paying customers as possible. As i said, it doesnt effect me, i just find it interesting that a company can stick 2 fingers up to so many people and not care about them. Its not just this they have done it with, it seems matrox management know better than the customers of the world, pity their sales figures dont show that. Im not havng a bash at you, but you need to see that they should have taken this on board.

You forget that developping a driver costs a HUGE lot of money.

In case of Parhelia that is a PROFESSIONNAL card, i think it would have been a big loss of money rater than a gain.

Yes, some clients wouls be lost. And what ?

Nobody can do everithing. Times are hard. All company managers must do choice in investment.

Good professionnals use multiples machines to run multiples OS and a network to connect them.

Using multi boost ISN'T a professional solution because of big loss of time.

[borat]

were gonna have to agree to disagree on this one. If parhelia is a pro card then your right, win 98 drivers are unimportant. If they wanted to compete in gaming (wasnt that what surround gaming, faa, aniso, and partial DX9 support were about?) then it was a big mistake. No hard feelings either way