February 2000
Volume 3, Issue 2

Inside this Issue...

Social Science Computing Laboratory
Faculty of Social Science
Room 1228, Social Science Centre
The University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 5C2

E-mail: ssts@uwo.ca
Web: ssts.uwo.ca
Phone: 519 661-2152
Managing Editor: Ramona Fudge

SSC Network Update

Future Watch – Windows 2000 & Millennium

Les Flodrowski

The biggest misconception people seem to have about Windows 2000 is that this operating system is the new version of Windows 95/98. The truth, however, is that Windows 2000 is actually a new edition of Windows NT and was originally going to be called Windows NT 5.0. Windows 2000 combines some of the best features of NT 4.0 and Windows 98 to deliver sought after features such as plug and play, common device driver support and reliability. Since it is based on NT, Windows 2000 has demanding hardware requirements and is targeted initially at corporations. It is not, at this time, considered to be a consumer operating system for home use. Windows 2000 will appear on store shelves by February 17 of this year in both a "Professional" and "Server" edition.

For the consumer (home) market, Microsoft is planning an upgrade to Windows 95/98 with a product called "Millennium". Millennium is slated for release by the end of this year, hence the name. In terms of magnitude, Millennium will probably be as significant as the Windows 98 upgrade was to Windows 95. It won't be as significant as Windows 2000 - in fact Microsoft is planning a consumer-oriented operating system based on Windows NT to follow Millennium. Microsoft has been clear in stating that it does not want to support multiple operating systems forever and will eventually support a single root operating system based on Windows NT. Therefore, Millennium will mark the end of the Windows 95 line.

How do these new operating systems affect us? In order to answer this question let's address some of the issues:

Purchase of New Computers
Windows 2000 does not supersede Windows 95/98 – you will still be able to order and use Windows 98 on new computers purchased for UWO or home use. Should you consider ordering Windows 2000 with that new computer? No, not yet, but you should make sure that your new computer is capable of running Windows 2000. This means having at least 128MB RAM, the fastest Pentium III (or Celeron) you can afford (500MHz or more) and a big hard drive (minimum 12GB).

Windows 2000 Support
SSCL plans to provide the same level of support for Windows 2000 as it does for Windows 95/98. That is, Windows 2000 users will have access to the full range of network and software services available to Windows 9x users, something that is not currently offered to Windows NT 4.0 systems.

To support Windows 2000 on the Network, we must first make sure that all network applications are compatible with Windows 2000 in a network environment. Secondly, we have to consider our own Network servers, which are currently running NT Server 4.0, and plan for a successful migration to Windows 2000 Server. Tentatively, support for Windows 2000 Professional is targeted for September of this year.

Windows Millennium Support
Will SSCL support Millennium when it becomes available? The answer to this question is more elusive. First, consider that Microsoft wants everyone (consumers and corporations) to eventually move to a Windows NT-based operating system. We are in a corporate environment and ITS is recommending that anyone using PeopleSoft installs NT instead of 95/98. Millennium won't be released for a year or more. Perhaps in the meantime Windows 2000 will become the "defacto" operating system standard. A year from now the question of Millennium support may be a non-issue.

Licensing
It is anticipated that Windows 2000 will be priced much the same as Windows NT is now, or about twice the price of Windows 9x. Working in our favour, however, is the Microsoft Campus Agreement (see related article in this issue). Although every PC must initially have a valid Windows licence, the Microsoft agreement will allow users to upgrade to the latest version of Windows without any additional cost.

The Bottom Line
Windows 95 or 98 is fully supported and in use throughout the faculty and UWO. New personal computers will continue to ship with Windows 98. In the long run, however, SSCL would like to move to Windows 2000. Windows NT has always been a more secure and stable computing environment and the new features of 2000 now make it a viable upgrade path for Social Science faculty, staff and students. Although it will take time to develop support for Windows 2000 on the Network, departments should ensure new computers purchased are Windows 2000 compatible. Hopefully, once support is ready and you decide to move to Windows 2000, there won't be an additional financial burden thanks to the Campus Agreement!