Is 98lite still worth using on Windows 9x builds? Or do people just max the build out as much as they can to make up for the bloat of internet explorer? I'm just curious as MJD recently did a video on 98lite and it's apparently still being sold.
I’ve always used 98lite on all my builds
Never saw any reason not to
Depends. On low-end machine without DMA? Yeah, make sense. On Pentium II+ with access to UDMA and modern SSD as boot device? Already too fast to notice.
I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.
I used it in the "QuakeToTheMax" contest for my ME build, if modularity and a slim installation footprint is what you're after it works pretty well. Performance wise, I didn't notice much of a difference. Unofficial Service Packs did more for me (performance wise), and they are offered free (Of course, they can be bloated also, depending on what you install). Changing the shell from ME back to 95 is interesting, but I saw no performance gain, only inconvenience. The 95 shell is pretty weak in its initial release with lack of folder display options, etc. The modularly is nice, but how often are you going to be add/removing components, though, is the question? And you're going to have issues if you completely remove IE with some applications; certain version of NVidia drivers and accessing the control panel for tweaking display settings, for example, at least I did (Could just be my specific setup, though) IE bloat is of no consequence, in general. Maybe if you're trying to max out a Pentium 166 Classic, there could be some advantage. Don't install Active Desktop or the Java Virtual Machine with IE in that case. The Microsoft IE installation, itself is, mostly modular, particularly with the newer version. And you can completely remove IE up to version 2.0 on Windows 95 without 98Lite. IE 3.0? Smallish footprint on 95 B. 95C? You can cancel the IE 4 install when the desktop appears to stay at version 3.0.
If you plan on regularly and repeatedly installing Windows with a standard build or entering contests, get all the tools you can. For the odd build here and there... eh...
