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Microsoft Squeezes Win2000 Users
darkonc writes "InformationWeek has a story on how Microsoft is squeezing Windows 2000 users as Vista and Office 2007 are being released. While some new software is legitimately unable to run on Windows 2000, other software (like MS's anti-spyware product) will install and run flawlessly — but only if you remove an explicit check for Windows 2000 in the installer." The article notes that other vendors, for example Sun, have more liberal and flexible support policies for legacy products.
This is non-news! Microsoft finished updating W2k long time ago (last one after SP4 was SR1 in 2005). There have been numerous bits of software and updates from MS that have only worked with XP for years now! Why is it now suddenly news that some Vista specific 'software' isn't going to work with W2k!?! And guess what! Millions of people around the world continue to use it - because it does what it supposed to do, it works, with or without this latest 'software'! Unbelievable, isn't it!
As a workstation, W2k is stable, efficient and clean, all the major software vendors in the market continue to support it (Autodesk, NI, Adobe, Mathworks etc.) and the extra features that one might want off XP haven't for me personally justified the upgrade cycle, learning curve and bloat that come with it. Needless to say what I think of Vista.
And as for longevity of Sun's support policies, don't you people realize that Land Rover has even longer support policies and longer history of reliablity then unix! So maybe all you linux people should switch your servers to 'Pinkies'. Oh, what's that complaining I hear? It doesn't run the software you want to use! Well tought shit, get with the dogma, loosers!
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There's a serious difference here though.
Upgrade of Solaris goes almost transparently. You load the upgrade, tweak a dozen of config files of so, reboot and the system starts up. On Windows upgrade starts with disk format. Whatever you had on your system needs to be installed from scratch. Years of customization go to hell and you start with a blank harddrive with new system, to which you must install all the software, all the data sources, all the configuration. Upgrade from 2.6 to 2.7 is just upgrade, replace updated files, keep the rest. Upgrade from w2k to w2k3server is more like OS change - destroy old system, install new, rebuild contents from scratch.
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
Performance and function without Microsoft's crap? The answer is simple: Get a mac.
How ya like dat?