Microsoft's biggest failure
Having worked on reviews and a book on the subject, I have been using Windows 2000 every day for about 18 months now, and I'm hooked. It's a great product, superior to Windows 98 and Windows NT in almost every way. I can't stand using Windows 9x anymore, yet that's all Microsoft offers to consumers.
I've been good at making excuses for Windows 9x: Because of its compromised architecture it has compatibility with old products and low system requirements the Windows NT kernel can't match. But enough is enough. These days, most computers come preinstalled with at least 64 MB of RAM, and the slowest processor you can buy is more than fast enough to run Windows 2000.
With Windows Me, Microsoft made some small, but meaningful improvements in system stability: There's less DOS than there used to be, and there's a new recovery feature that lets you undo configuration changes. But in all the time I've been using Windows 2000 I have seen exactly one system crash to the point where I had to reboot my machine. Crashing Windows 9x, even Windows Me, is still easy.
Microsoft markets Windows 2000 Professional as a desktop OS for business, and certainly it is. Because of the complexity of some aspects of Win2K, I would hesitate to recommend it to most consumers. And yet, there are two main reasons why consumers need the stability of the Windows 2000 kernel at least as much as business users: First, consumer applications are more than demanding enough to benefit from the power of Windows 2000. Are business apps like Lotus Notes really any more demanding on a PC than Microsoft Publisher or Empire Interactive's MiG Alley? Second, business users can rely on support staffs when their systems crash but who's a consumer supposed to call when the screen turns blue? (I know who my relatives call, but what about everyone else?)
Microsoft's next client version of Windows 2000, code-named Whistler, will come in business and consumer editions. The company says the consumer Whistler will be a functional superset of Windows Me, but based on the Windows 2000 kernel. This is a situation much to be desired, and the sooner it happens the better. Unfortunately, Microsoft is already years late on this promise, and it looks to be another year or so before the product is ready. Bummer!
When it finally happens, I can only hope that Microsoft moves as quickly as possible to eliminate the Windows 9x kernel-based products from the market. Even though this sort of move has gotten them in legal trouble, it would be a big favor for everyone in the computer business.
Larry Seltzer is a freelance writer and software developer and the author of "ADMIN911:Windows 2000 Terminal Services." He can be reached at larry@larryseltzer.com.