Windows 2000 a corporate player
by Alan Zisman
(c) 2000. First
published in Toronto Computes,
February
2000
As Lynn Grenier has made apparent in her article,
Windows 2000 is perhaps
Microsoft?s best effort yet?with 45 million lines of computer code,
it?s
certainly the biggest!
But Windows 2000 isn?t for everyone. Let?s see if it?s
for you (I?m
only going to look at Windows 2000 Professional, the version for
individual
users).
-- Price: As of early January, Microsoft hasn?t
committed themselves
to official Canadian pricing. But if you?re used to the more or less
CDN$150
to upgrade Windows 95 or 98, expect sticker shock. Inmac Canada?s
current
catalogue, for example, offers the chance to pre-order Windows 2000
Professional
(the single-user version) for CDN$299.95 for the upgrade version, or
$434.95
for non-upgraders.
-- Hardware: Microsoft suggests a minimum hardware
platform of a Pentium
133 with 32 Mb of RAM. The magic word is minimum. I?d recommend about a
300 MHz processor and 64 Mb of RAM as a more realistic lower end?on
such
a system, it may perform better than either NT 4.0 or Windows 9x.
Windows
2000 supports far more hardware peripherals?printers, modems, video
cards,
and the like?than its predecessor Windows NT 4.0. Plug and Play is much
improved, and it adds support for USB. Still, fewer hardware devices
are
supported than is the case with Windows 98. Before upgrading, check on
Microsoft?s Hardware Compatibility List to see if your key hardware is
supported: http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/upgrade/
-- Notebooks: You?ll find Windows 2000?s plug
and play and support
for hot-swapping PC Cards a big improvement over NT?s. Power management
is improved as well, and owners of the newest notebooks will find it
quite
usable. On my 1 year old notebook, however, APM power management has
failed
to work as advertised? a problem that has persisted through beta and
pre-release
versions to the Gold Code release version.
-- Software: At Microsoft?s upgrade web site, over
2000 software products
are listed as working with Windows 2000. There have been reports
about the scant handful that are listed as ?Certified for Windows
2000??a
total of 5 as of January 8th. This is a bogus concern?Microsoft has
upped
the requirements for certification (and about time!) so that even its
own
products aren?t listed, but the other listed applications will run as
well.
But that doesn?t mean that all software will run
happily under Windows
2000. Some that I?ve tried, such as Microsoft?s Encarta 98 complain
during
installation, but seem to run OK. Others, like the music program Mixman
Studio refuse to install at all under Windows 2000 or other NT-based
operating
systems. Many Windows 9x utilities will need to be replaced with
NT-based
versions. But the big problems will be games. While Windows 2000 offers
better gaming support than NT 4.0, including Direct X 7.0, its whole
rationale
is to keep software from getting the sort of direct hardware access and
control that many games demand. Hard core gamers shouldn?t even think
about
it.
-- Learning curve: Windows 2000 looks and feels like
Windows 98. Under
the hood, its NT roots become clearer. It you?ve felt comfortable
customizing
Windows 95 or 98, expect some big changes. If you upgrade a Windows 9x
machine that?s sharing files or printers over a peer-to-peer network,
expect
to have to do a fair bit of tweakingon both the server and the clients.
The bottom line: Windows 2000 is really aimed at large
corporate networks.
Home users, notebook users, and small business users (but not game
players)
may find its increased stability and security worth the expense and
learning
curve?if they have the right mix of hardware and software.