Text 14781, 194 rader
Skriven 2006-12-17 09:08:16 av mike (1:379/45)
Ärende: Microsoft Turns Up The Heat On Windows 2000 Users
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From: mike <mike@barkto.com>


http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=19670007
1

"Microsoft's lifecycle support policies are well defined. If you can live with
the Redmond company's five-year horizon, when much of the support for its
products ends, you can persevere. If not, other vendors can offer you a much
longer window."




===
Companies that rely on Windows 2000 face tough, end-of-lifecycle choices as
Microsoft pushes upgrades to Windows Vista, 2003, and Longhorn Server.

With the recent release of Microsoft's newest potential cash cows, Windows
Vista and Office 2007, the company is expecting a wave of upgrades from users
seeking the latest functionality. But what if you're not looking for new bells
and whistles? What if you want to keep your old operating systems, such as
Windows 2000, running as long as possible?

Microsoft isn't making it easy for you. Office 2007 and the software for the
company's much-hyped Zune music player won't install on Windows 2000. As other
new products emerge from Microsoft in 2007 and beyond, more and more of them
are likely to leave Windows 2000 out of the party. Which of these installation
restrictions are caused by a real lack of capabilities in Windows 2000,
however? Are any of them merely a "squeeze play" by Microsoft to convince
buyers that it's necessary to immediately upgrade all PCs to Vista and all
servers to Server 2003 or the forthcoming Longhorn Server?

One example of this conundrum is Microsoft's Windows Defender program. This
antispyware program can be downloaded for free, but it will only install on
Windows XP, Server 2003, and higher. The application won't install on Windows
2000, according to Microsoft's own product documentation.

Users have reported, however, that this is simply an artificial rule built into
the Installshield package that copies Defender files to disk.

The installer contains a condition defined as VersionNT > 500. (Windows 2000 is
technically considered version 5.0 of Windows NT.) Admins who've removed this
condition using Orca, an Installshield editor, say Defender then installs and
runs fine on Windows 2000. (For information on editing Installshield .msi files
with Orca, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 255905.)
Regardless of whether Microsoft apps are unnecessarily shutting out Windows
2000, the writing is on the wall. The company has fairly strict policies
defining when it stops supporting older products. In the case of Windows 2000,
the end of what Microsoft calls "mainstream support" came in June 2005.

To understand the concept of mainstream support, you need to understand that
there are three lifecycle policies that affect Microsoft products:

http://i.cmpnet.com/infoweek/1118/MSBizSoftwareLifecycle_lg.gif

Microsoft offers five years of "mainstream support" and an additional five
years of "extended support" before a business product falls into online-only
support.


Consumer products, such as Windows XP and Service Pack 2, get five years of
mainstream support. After that, support will only be provided by Knowledge Base
articles online. The "consumer products" category includes Microsoft Dynamics,
a line of offerings formerly known as Microsoft Business Solutions.
Annually updated products, such as Microsoft Money and Encarta, get an even
shorter leash. They're supported for three years. Business software, such as
Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003, enjoy five years of mainstream support
plus an additional five years of "extended support," after which they drop into
online-only support purgatory. It's this kind of software support that most
affects IT organizations.

Extended support, according to Microsoft, includes the continued development of
critical security patches and the availability of paid support. It doesn't
include the Redmond company taking requests for new design features — a luxury
that's reserved for products that are still in the mainstream-support phase.

Some nonsecurity hotfixes will also be provided by Microsoft outside of the
initial five-year mainstream period. However, according to the Microsoft
Support Lifecycle Policy FAQ, companies must purchase an "extended hotfix
agreement" within 90 days of the end of mainstream support. That leaves in the
lurch a lot of companies that didn't immediately leap to buy such a contract.
Microsoft's policies can lead to some big frustrations for companies that have
major investments in Windows 2000. One of the biggest headaches at the moment
is the lack of a patch to update the meaning of Daylight Saving Time on Windows
2000.

The beginning and ending dates of DST in the United States will be
significantly altered in 2007, thanks to an act of Congress. Various changes
also affect other countries. Western Australia made an official switch to
daylight time on Dec. 3, 2006. The last-minute action by a state parliament
afforded IT admins in that country only 12 days to adjust their computers'
time.

Despite the importance of accurate timekeeping in many computer networks,
Microsoft doesn't plan to release a patch that will update Windows 2000 systems
to the new time-zone definitions. A patch was posted on Nov. 21 for Windows XP
and Server 2003 (see KnowledgeBase article 928388). But a version is
conspicuously absent for W2K.

Paul Chinnery is network administrator for a community hospital in western
Michigan. With 38 servers, all running Windows 2000, and almost 300
workstations, 40 percent of which still run W2K, he's furious that Microsoft
won't provide admins in his situation with such a simple patch.

"With the number of organizations in this country that are still using Windows
2000," Chinnery said, "it's a dereliction of Microsoft's duty to its customers
not to put out a patch for the time-zone issue."

Patients in his hospital might not actually die if a computer's clock was off
by one hour, he said. But government regulations (not to mention common sense)
require accurate records for such things as surgeries and medications, where
one hour can definitely make a difference.

In this case, there's a workaround that Windows 2000 admins can apply. A
utility known as tzedit.exe, which is included in the Microsoft Windows
Resource Kit, allows manual editing of Registry keys that define the beginning
and ending of DST. (For information, see KnowledgeBase article 886775.)

Chinnery says he's accepted the fact that he'll have to use the utility to fix
his Windows 2000 systems. But, lacking an easily deployable patch, it means he
must walk around to tweak each machine in his organization. This is a chore he
doesn't feel he should face.

Other new software titles upset him as well. Chinnery wants the better
reporting features that are expected to be found in Microsoft's forthcoming
version 3.0 of Windows Server Update Services (WSUS). But the Redmond software
giant says its new patch-management software won't run on Windows 2000.
Chinnery says he might switch to Patchlink Update, a competing product that
supports a much longer list of operating systems than WSUS.

Why doesn't Chinnery upgrade his machines? "If we go to Windows Server 2003 and
then Longhorn Server comes out, it might be more money on top of more money,"
he says. "Being a small health-care organization, there's only so much money to
go around." Microsoft has a monopoly share of desktop operating system sales
and can pretty much call the shots when it comes to support. By contrast,
software publishers with smaller market shares tend to take a more benign view
of customers that want to keep their older products running unchanged.

Sun Microsystems, for example, has an official policy that offers support, paid
and otherwise, for its Solaris operating system for at least five years after a
particular version stops being sold. Microsoft's five-year mainstream period
begins the first day its products ship.

http://i.cmpnet.com/infoweek/1118/Solaris_Lifecycle_lg.gif


Sun's product-support lifecycles run for at least five years after an operating
system ceased shipping, not when it started shipping.


Sensing that some of its corporate customers aren't too keen on change, Sun
also maintains at least two major releases of Solaris on sale at all times. At
present, Solaris is available in three versions: 8, 9, and 10.

According to Chris Ratcliffe, Sun's director of Solaris marketing, the Santa
Clara, Calif., company is actually still supporting users of version 2.6. That
product is more than 10 years old and hasn't been commercially available since
2002. But Sun's "vintage support" period means the operating system is fully
supported through 2007, Ratcliffe says.

Even after 2007 ends, it isn't curtains for the older technology. "After the
end of vintage support," Ratcliffe explains, "we're prepared to go into
negotiations with customers on an individual basis." For instance, Solaris
version 2.5.1, which first shipped in 1995, is continuing to be supported by
Sun on a case-by-case basis, he says.

Why do companies want to keep using such old software? One big reason is that
newer software, besides the labor cost of testing and installing the changed
code, often demands more expensive hardware, as well. It's cheaper in many
cases to let the old stuff keep running.

Other companies simply don't feel any need to tamper with important systems
that are working as desired. "People who are shipping hundreds of thousands of
packages a day tend to build scanning solutions," Ratcliffe says, by way of
example. "You build 'em and you leave 'em." Financial firms also tend to rely
on the same software year after year.

Many users of Windows servers, Ratcliffe says, are switching to Sun and other
providers to get more predictability and stability. One typical customer
recently replaced all of its Windows-based file and print servers with machines
running Solaris 10, he says.

Conclusion
Microsoft's lifecycle support policies are well defined. If you can live with
the Redmond company's five-year horizon, when much of the support for its
products ends, you can persevere. If not, other vendors can offer you a much
longer window.
===

 /m

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