WINDOWS NT 4.0 near to the end
Spinner
Birmingham, UK
The Register reports that Microsoft's support for the ageing OS NT 4.0 is starting to dwindle, as we get nearer and nearer to the official expiry date of the once widely used piece of software.
For the whole report:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/31468.html
From the beginning of July there will be no new hotfixes for workstation versions of NT 4 either. So from Tuesday the remaining (die-hard) NT 4 users will have to make do with basic online self-help support until the official expiry date of the product on June 30 2004.
For the whole report:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/31468.html
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Comments
Progress, I guess.
Prof
PS: If you haven't done so already, please give us your input in the “Utilities Discussion – Week2” thread under General Software!!! This week we are asking for your recommended programs in these categories: HD Speed benchmark, CD Drive Speed Benchmark, Video Performance benchmark
I am still shocked at the number of people I run into that still use Windows 95. I mean come on people. Windows 98, yeah ok fair enough. But 95!
Yes progress is fast, but that's no excuse to remain in the past.
Its a matter of cost. I worked in my HS's Tech Office most of last year and I know that MANY of the systems are running 95 and the rest 98s besides the ones they have bought from Compaq or Dell have 2k or XP on them. They simply do NOT have the budget to upgrade all those systems. And many of the systms WONT run much more than 95 or 98. There are a lot of P 133s still running at school. Besides the new ones they are all Celeron 500s and lower. I dont know what the budget and I know they could do better things than buy 30 LTs with Centrino CPUs for the 5th and 6th graders but the money is not there for companies and schools.
If it works why upgrade. I bet as long as the needed apps remain at the Word Processing and Email level that NT will remain around for another 3-5 years.
I think it's a hit below the belt that they start tugging on the rug a year before the exp date. But hey, it's Microsoft, so of course they can do as they please...
What kinda puts people off are the number of companies who blew alot of money rolling out Win2k, only then to have XP Pro walked into the door with it's matching server family.
Corporations don't just "upgrade" to the latest OS like core enthuiasts do. There is far too much money at stake if it goes south. Only upgrade if you need to. Infact, most OS installs NEVER get changed unless there is a fundamental hardware fault on the rig.
Every new machine built for the small company I work for, is still having 2K as standard. No need for XP and it's more costly structure (plus, we are too small for volume license agreement and activating is a hassle, something ALOT of small business IT companies have complained about).
Small businesses are not the only group. Grrrrrrrr.
Absolutely right, keebs - some (though few) are 350 MHz machines. *shudder*
It has been more than a few years for NT, 2000 has been out for a few years, NT has been out for a long ass time. 2000 is now mature enough to completely take over for NT. I agree with MS choice. I think 2004 is to long, I would have phased it out by then end of October.
Tek
Yeah but doing that just forces people/companies to upgrade when it's not really necessary. Just Microsoft's way of saying "It's about time you gave us some more money".
I mean, as my previous post indicated I understand that NT 4.0 is really quite past it, but I do have the tendency to forget the actual cost of upgrading a whole company is massive. So part of me wants to see every PC in the world running the latest and greatest, but the other half wants Microsoft to add a bit more shelf like to its products.
It's a nice step up from running WinNT4 on our older P2-400 Compaq machines, which just chugged like nobody's business.
They are planning to roll out to Windows 2000 Professional, but are having difficulty as we have over 500 custom written applications designed specifically for Windows NT 4.0 SP5 (hence why we don't have SP6a installed).
I should also note that there are over 10,000 desktop & notebook PC's in our organization. There is no "Easy" way to roll-out an organization-wide OS update.