Windows2000

[Methusalah]

Have recently heard, from a desk-top friend, that Windows2000 is NOT for us casual types, we should wait for something that is scheduled to come out a bit later? Any information from those who know more please!

[FL310]

as far as it is announced, it will be a true 32-bit system. This means, if you still have some W3.x software or DOS software, they will not work anymore.
Software made for W95 or W98 will work.
It is pretty much the same as with NT, no DOS or W3.x software, most of the W95 and all of the W98 software works.
NT uses internal handles for port access, i.e. printer and serial ports. This is different to DOS. Win 3.x and W95/W98 are still leaving the Windows platform to access these ports, also you are shown a nice graphic that the printer is spooling etc, but if you check the status bar, you see the DOS symbol there while printing.
This is only one of the changes....but for many people it is a very expensive one, you will need to upgrade your existing packages to 32-bit editions (if the manufacturer re-wrote the software at all...).
W98 is capable of dealing with 32-bit software if it is not specially written for NT (the handler problem) but it is the end of a production line soon...

[Irish Steve]

The release of WIN2000 that's about to happen is intended for mainly commercial users, as to all intents and purposes, it's NT5 under a different name. There's 3 levels, and the lowest level is the equivalent of NT workstation. There are for sure issues about backward compatibility for some programs, especially things like games that use low level access to the hardware, so be careful.

There is supposed to be a WIN98 upgrade to the same sort of spec as WIN 2000 in the pipeline, but as far as I know, it's some way out yet.

In a nutshell, if you're using a home machine, and not running a lot of heavy business applications, WIN2000 may well not be the right next move for you.



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"Irish" Steve

[Land Lubber]

I had heard that Win2000 was 4CD's small.

A ZDNet scribe noted that loading Word 2000 onto his laptop was more than it could handle. It functioned, but was very slow and awkward, presumably due to the size of the program, and the amount of space left to the swap file. Perhaps that is why the new 20+ drives have been marketed [among other things].

I have also heard that Linux has a GUI very like Windows [now from Corel], and that they are working on an application to bridge the gap for software that runs on Windows xx. This must be good news for Microsoft , as they will no longer be a monopoly... how is that for incredible luck?

[Methusalah]

Thanks for all the info. I will leave Win2000 well alone and stick to Win98 version 2.

[FL310]

The details, as far as MS is willing to unveil, are available at

http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/default.asp

Check the requirements concerning soft- and hardware.