with Sun Microsystems. The Windows Update website continued to be available after Windows 98's end of support date, however, in 2011, Microsoft retired the Windows Update v4 website and removed the updates for Windows 98 and Windows 98 SE from its servers. Reception Windows 98 was released to generally favorable reviews, with praise directed to its improved graphical user interface and customizability, ease of use, and the degree to which it addressed complaints that users and critics had with Windows 95. Michael Sweet of Smart Computing characterized it as heavily integrating features of the Internet browser, and found file and folder navigation easier. Ed Bott of PC Computing lauded the bug fixes, easier troubleshooting, and support for hardware advances such as DVD players and USB. However, he also found that the operating system crashed only slightly less frequently, and criticized the high upgrade price and system requirements. He rated it four stars out of five. Sales Windows 98 sold 530,000 licenses in its first four days of availability, overtaking Windows 95's 510,000. It later sold a total of 580,000 and 350,000 licenses in the first and second months of availability, respectively. In the first year of its release, Windows 98 sold a total of 15 million licenses – 2 million more than its predecessor. However, International Data Corporation estimated that of the roughly 89 million shipped computers in the desktop market, the operating system had a market share of 17.2 percent, compared to Windows 95's 57.4 percent. Meanwhile, the two operating systems continued to observe a trend whereby Windows 98 improved in sales performance, whereas Windows 95 dwindled. After a legal dispute and subsequent settlement with Sun Microsystems over the former's Java Virtual Machine, Microsoft ceased distributing the operating system on December 15, 2003, and IDC estimated that a total of 58 million copies were installed worldwide by then. References Further reading External links "Windows 98." – Microsoft (Archive) GUIdebook: Windows 98 Gallery – A website dedicated to preserving and showcasing Graphical User Interfaces 1998 software 1999 software Products and services discontinued in 2006 98 DOS variants IA-32 operating systems