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by brandn8

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I was wondering what OS most big buisnesses are using right now. I know companies are hesitant to upgrade real soon so i am wondering they are still on WinNT or on Win2k.

Thanks

11 replies

by djent

Many are still using NT4, they see no compelling reason to change and not inclined to spend money frivolously.

by brandn8

when they do decide to make the switch, is it gonna be to win2k or XP or probablly the next one down the line? I am asking this because i just got my MCP in Win2k and i'm now realizing it might not be as important as i thought it was.

by djent

Aside from a few multimedia frills and activation XP is W2k with a screwedup interface and new bugs and holes. Check out grc.com for "plug&pray" passport and wallet, then draw your own conclusions. W2k has SP2 and SP3 is in beta, NT4 is at SP6a. NowSP6a is 110 megs compressed, NT4 only required 122 megs of space for the first release to install, do you think it had some problems? W2k was at least 3 times as big and SP2 was 104 megs compressed. Why would want to use an OS that needs 100+ megs of patches. XP SP1 is still in beta, not ready for prime time. MS first release OS's should be called "Gold beta for pay" version. The rule of thumb for many professionals is "hands off till at least SP2" unless its in the lab, not production.

by ghstinshll

Complete the MCSA, then seek out some NT experience... I'm not sure if there are any exams on managing a 2000 server in an NT environement or upgrading, or what not... that might help you get a job in an NT shop.

by mc_user

Microsoft will stop selling Windows 2000 to OEMs in about nine months. It will still be available for individual purchases but the push by MS is to always make the customer upgrade.

Check out this article on it at "The Register"
http://www.theregus.com/content/4/25513.html

As a rule you should always study the "latest and greatest" by MS. I believe that W2k is an excellent OS that can do almost any buisness job required of it. But MS wants you to always wants you to buy the latest.

PS: MS just released SP3 for W2K yesterday.

by thechas

The last 2 places I have worked, have kept the original OS that came on the PC in place.

Where I work right now, we have PCs running
MS-DOS 5!
MS-DOS 6.22
Windows 95
Windows NT
and Windows 2000

Many firms are just unwilling to spend the money to upgrade OSs and programs on the systems.

Most of our DOS systems are running custom DOS programs that would be cost prohibitive to rewrite for windows.

Chas

by slam5

Well, I think these programs can be ran on Windows platform but you need some twitch. Of course, there are some programs that will not run under any circumstances but that are few. If the machine that is running DOS 5.X or 6.X dieds, it would be hard to replace them with a modern machine that can still run DOS. I guess you can always find a USED box but that is only postponing the inevitable.

by brandn8

Right now at the company i summer intern at, we have NT and linux servers and the clients are either NT4 or the new ones are XP because Dell has started shipping nothing but XP now.

Are the NT4 MCPs still available?

by djent

You can still find NT4 but W2k is a better option. You can buy many OEM PCs with W2k or build your own. The problem with most OEMs is that you don't get a real copy of the OS, just a restore disk. Just for laughs try to partition your drive and install XP with an NTFS from the restore disk and then wait for the boot failure errors. Dell doesn't tell you that the 40+ GB C: drive is FAT32 and if you convert it to NTFS you will incur boot problems and the restore disk won't allow partitions. Mention that to the "dude" that buys the DELLs.

by Member 26962261

I did 2 differents compagny in the past 2 years(in Canada). Primary os used was w2k and then nt4 ...95. Don't forget that w2k is very easy to troobleshoot. So IT's technicien upgrade os without licences.....

Have a nice day.

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