Remember though, Microsoft does not even support these many of those products anymore: http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifeselectwin

Even .NET is not available on Windows 98/Me: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=262...

Windows 2000 still has extended support for another 21 months, so I would definitely be disappointed if it wasn't supported in Python 2.6.

http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?LN=en-ca&x=24...

The fact that MS is keeping Windows 2000 on life support does not mean anyone else should waste their time to support that platform. Running ancient operating systems should come with the expectation of not being able to use new software.