how long will win2k be supported?

[groovin]

microsoft seems to be pushing win xp alot. how long do you think until 2k goes the way of 98 and NT in the non-support road?

 

[SinNisTeR]

id say a week max.. just messing id says a year or so after the .NET XPs come out. a good quess would be the time that NT4 went away after win2k was released.

 

[Escalade]

Microsoft can maximize its profits by shutting down support for older products and pushing everyone towards buying newer, supported Microsoft products... i.e Windows-XP! Woo-Hoo!

They ceased to provide support for MS DOS, Windows 3.xx, and Windows NT 3.5x; and support will become limited for Win95, Win95 OSR1 and Win95 OSR2 in December 2001.

In a few short months (June 2002 to be exact), theywill cease to provide full support for Win98, Win98SE, and WinNT4.x.

You see Microsoft has moved to a 3-year product lifecycle: this is what you can expect to get by way of formal support from Microsoft for *all* their products. However, there is a limited "extended support" available for one year after after the mainstream support shuts (pay-per-call basis).

If you want to see Microsoft's offical word on this subject look here...

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycleconsumer.asp

and

http://support.microsoft.com/directory/discontinue.asp

BTW... Support for Windows 2000 Professional will be available at least until June, 2004.

 

[SaigonK]

And longer than that if you are a Premier Support member....

 

[Blayze]

who knows

it will be a year or so maybe...

 

[johnlog]

I know some who are pissed at MS for no longer supporting their 15 year old DOS programs. Just how long does anyone expect a software company, any company, to continue supporting their old software? My guess is three years for computer OS is about right as which company can afford to support a program they no longer earn any money from? Somehow for some strange reason many programmers expect to get paid for working.

Computer hardware technology advances so fast software/OS companies have to keep producing programs that will take advantage of new hardware and new CPUs running at faster speeds.

 

[groovin]

thanks everyone

good info Escalade!

The reason im asking this is because Im getting a few new workstations at work. I dont want to install 2k if its going into the OS retirement home in a few years. All of our current are running either 98 or NT4 which are not exactly the newest things either, so I was playing with the idea of upgrading those as well. I really dont like XP, especially since some of our machines are lower P3 class and I dont feel they can handle all the fruity goodness XP has to offer. So, for the next few years, will 2k be a reliable business OS?

 

[johnlog]

You can use Win 2K on your systems long after MS no longer supports it because by the time MS stops supporting it you should have installed all the updates to the system.

There are some who still run DOS networks. Doesn't matter much if MS or IBM no longer support their old DOS or Win NT in the future.

 

[azkiwi]

"I know some who are pissed at MS for no longer supporting their 15 year old DOS programs. Just how long does anyone expect a software company, any company, to continue supporting their old software?"

I beleive Honda still has parts and support for products it built 15 years ago. That is a lot more intensive than supporting software since it involves thousands of different products and god knows how many parts. Supporting software means what - keeping a database up and running. How unreasonable!

Its the difference between dedication to customer in a competitive market and dedication to profit in a monopoly.

 

[praestare]

i'd say it would last a long time. there're still some people using win95 now.

 

[NogginBoink]

<< "I know some who are pissed at MS for no longer supporting their 15 year old DOS programs. Just how long does anyone expect a software company, any company, to continue supporting their old software?"

I beleive Honda still has parts and support for products it built 15 years ago. That is a lot more intensive than supporting software since it involves thousands of different products and god knows how many parts. Supporting software means what - keeping a database up and running. How unreasonable!

Its the difference between dedication to customer in a competitive market and dedication to profit in a monopoly. >>


How naiive.

It takes much more than just keeping a database. The databases exist and will continue to exist. The problem is that in order to support these older products, MS must keep trained, experienced support staff. The support folks are busy supporting current products, and the expertise on the older products quickly fades. Do you know how to change the IP address of a computer running Windows for Workgroups? I don't. I haven't done anything like that in years. Neither has most of MS support staff.

Keeping a database is easy and cheap. Keeping expertise in house is not. Microsoft hires very smart people who are driven to learn and use the latest technologies to help their customers solve problems. The experience on the older products quickly fades. It simply makes no economic sense for MS to continue to provide phone support that is obsolete and used by only a fraction of their customer base. It would make no economic sense for ANY company to do that. If people weren't driving 15 year old Hondas, Honda wouldn't make parts for them any more.

 

[azkiwi]

<< How naiive.

It takes much more than just keeping a database. The databases exist and will continue to exist. The problem is that in order to support these older products, MS must keep trained, experienced support staff. The support folks are busy supporting current products, and the expertise on the older products quickly fades. Do you know how to change the IP address of a computer running Windows for Workgroups? I don't. I haven't done anything like that in years. Neither has most of MS support staff.

Keeping a database is easy and cheap. Keeping expertise in house is not. Microsoft hires very smart people who are driven to learn and use the latest technologies to help their customers solve problems. The experience on the older products quickly fades. It simply makes no economic sense for MS to continue to provide phone support that is obsolete and used by only a fraction of their customer base. It would make no economic sense for ANY company to do that. If people weren't driving 15 year old Hondas, Honda wouldn't make parts for them any more. [?Q]

It takes much more than databases for Honda too. It takes warehouses, inventory systems and knowledgable personnel. Honda has perhaps millions of parts for thousands of products, not just a few dozen products with no parts whatsoever (or at the very least parts that can be stored on a disk and be shipped by phone line). Instead of moving to a 3 year product cycle and forcing those older customers to upgrade or go to hell they continue to treat every customer as the valuable asset they were considered when they made the purchase. So I guess its how you define economic sense - if its more economic to screw your customer because you can, then I stand corrected. The great thing about a monopoly of course, is that you don't need customer loyalty.

Anyway, I'm not sure I'm the naive one here.

 

[ultimatebob]

It took Microsoft about six years to stop supporting Windows 3.1 and Windows 95, with the "offical" drop-dead date on both of them being 12/31/2001. Microsoft is scheduled to kill support for Windows NT in June 2003, but they'll probably have to continue to offer security patches for a few more years. This date has already been extended from June 2002, and there are just WAY too many NT Servers and Workstations still running out there to just kill support for them.

To answer your question, the offical product life-cycle for Windows 2000 is supposed to end in March 2003. Support for the product is supposed to end two years later.

Anyway, here's the Link, if you want to read it from Microsoft

 

[johnlog]

Azkiwi,
><FONT size=1> beleive Honda still has parts and support for products it built 15 years ago. That is a lot more intensive than supporting software since it involves thousands of different products and god knows how many parts. Supporting software means what - keeping a database up and running. How unreasonable! <
</FONT>
<FONT size=1>Big differences there. When you need parts for your old Honda do you get those parts for free? No? How sad. You have to PAY and that is no joke. Now look at it again. Why do you think any software company should provide free updates for the rest of your life? You mean that is not practical? That programmers who create updates want to get paid for their work. Do you allways work for no pay. I doubt it. Like you need a reality check.

Young persons generally do not understand when one works one expects to be paid.

When Honda stocks parts for old cars I believe reality says Honda only stocks parts for cars ten years old or less like other car manufacturers do. Did you know a friend of mine found a place where you can still buy parts (used) for a 1951 Chevrolet? Gotta pay through the nose for them but you can get them. Not free. Those parts are NOT stocked by General Motors.

</FONT>

 

[neuralfx]

win2k will most probably be supported as long as xp is .. it is the same product model, and ms's little cert track is the same for xp and 2k .. and ms doesn't have much choice to support it .. many companies are just no considering the switch from nt to 2k .. and i dont know of any that are using xp domains .. just my thoughts ..
-neural

 

[azkiwi]

<< Young persons generally do not understand when one works one expects to be paid. >>



Young people are so quick to jump to assumptions.

Probably older than you sonny. And self-employed for twenty years in a fiercley competitive marketplace to boot. I'm quite old and wise enough to understand bottom lines and I've been computing (mostly happily) with MS products since my 086 machine.

Did you see something in my post about GM? I also didn't say anything about free support. Its all getting rather OT, but I think the point still stands that a 3 year product cycle is mercilessly short and part of a deliberate strategy to force customers to upgrade to the latest product. Were M$ not effectively the monopoly it is (through anti-competitive behavior), I believe its a fair assumption that they would offer better customer support.