Re: Windows emacs-25.1 i686 vs x86_64?

[Paul Eggert]

On 11/07/2016 06:43 AM, Richard Stallman wrote:
> even a few years ago
> people were still installing unauthorized copies of Windows 98 on PCs,
> because Microsoft made it harder to install subsequent Windows
> versions.

That was true fifteen years ago, but unauthorized versions of 
more-recent MS-Windows systems have been widely available for ages and 
they are the ones invariably installed nowadays. Last year, for example, 
Microsoft announced[1] that it would give free Windows 10 licenses to 
users running unauthorized copies of Windows 7 or 8.1 because 
unauthorized versions were so popular (they reportedly had most of the 
Chinese market). StatCounter reports that in China, where unauthorized 
use is common, Windows XP had over 90% of desktop use by 2008 (with the 
remainder mostly being later versions of Windows), and that nowadays 
Windows 7 and Windows 10 are both more popular than XP, with the 9x line 
being too small to count separately during this period.

So in practice Windows 9x is dead, and covering Windows 9x prominently 
in Emacs documentation wastes users' time and makes us look technically 
dated.

1. Hachman M. Microsoft offers amnesty of sorts to pirates of older 
Windows software. PCWorld 2015-10-29. 
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2999443/windows/microsoft-offers-amnesty-of-sorts-to-pirates-of-older-windows-software.html