Print - WinInfo Short Takes: Week of November 29 [Exclusive: MS Drops Windows 2000 SP5]

An often irreverent look at some of the week's other news...

Exclusive: Microsoft Drops Windows 2000 SP5, Plans Security Rollup Instead
A source close to Microsoft today sent me documentation about an Update Rollup for Windows 2000 that the software giant will release in 2005 in lieu of a Service Pack 5 (SP5). "The Update Rollup will contain all security-related updates produced for Windows 2000 between SP4 and the time when Microsoft finalizes the contents of the Update Rollup, and a small number of important non-security updates," the documentation reads. "Because Microsoft believes the Update Rollup will better meet the needs of customers than a new service pack, there will not be a Service Pack 5 (SP5) for Windows 2000. Therefore, SP4 becomes the final service pack for Windows 2000." So there you go.

EU Judges Calls Unusual Meeting in Microsoft Antitrust Case As Rivals Drop Out

With both Novell and the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) trade group dropping out of the European Union (EU) antitrust case, EU judge Bo ("Duke") Vesterdorf has called for an emergency closed meeting Thursday to determine how to proceed. Previously, both Novell and the CCIA had supported the EU's case against Microsoft, but Microsoft was able to settle its dispute with both organizations. (Previously, the company also settled with two other companies, Sun Microsystems and Time Warner, which were involved in the EU case, leaving only RealNetworks to stand against the software giant.) Now, Vesterdorf says he'd like to "figure out what the significance is" of the two parties exiting the case. While it's still unclear whether any evidence entered by Novell and the CCIA will be used in the case, Microsoft says it will not oppose the inclusion of previous statements made by either organization.

Microsoft Buys Silence of CCIA

And speaking of the good ol' CCIA, you may be interested to hear that the settlement between that previously anti-Microsoft organization and Microsoft earlier this month netted the CCIA $20 million, $10 million of which went to CCIA president Ed Black. The CCIA, you may recall, is an industry group comprised of Microsoft competitors such as Sun Microsystems, Oracle, and Yahoo, and it figured prominently in the US antitrust case against the software giant and, until recently, the EU case as well. The CCIA refers to the Black payout as a "one time bonus"; it also extended Black's contract three more years, providing him with a $500,000 a year salary. I guess vindictively pursuing Microsoft can pay off. Perhaps I'm going about things the wrong way.

Microsoft: No IE Patch Outside of Monthly Updates

This week, Microsoft confirmed that it was investigating three reported security vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer (IE) but stated that it was unlikely to issue any patches for the problems outside of the company's normally-scheduled monthly security update cycle. Security firm Secunia first warned the software giant about the problems, which don't affect the version of IE in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), in early November. A representative from Microsoft's Security Response Center (the name of which might just be an oxymoron, by the way) noted that it was better to get it right than get it out early. "The most important thing in security responses is that, if you come out with a fix, it will be a quality fix that won't break applications or introduce more problems," the representative told Internet News. "How Microsoft's Security Response Center determines when a fix will be released is a function of testing. It requires a balance between time and testing."

OneStat: Mozilla Browsers Continue to Gain on IE

According to Web analytics company OneStat.com, Web browser products from the Mozilla Foundation, including the Mozilla Browser Suite and Mozilla Firefox, continue to gain on market leader IE. While all versions of IE combined still own a whopping 88.9 percent of the market, Mozilla-based products jumped to 7.4 percent in October. "People are switching from Microsoft's Internet Explorer to Mozilla's new Firefox browser," says OneStat.com cofounder Niels Brinkman. "The total usage share of Microsoft declined 5 percent and the total usage share of Mozilla increased 5 percent [since May]. It's a long trend, this IE decline. First it was very slow, but now it's accelerating rapidly." The sudden success of Firefox has been unexpected. The Mozilla Foundation reports that over 5.6 million copies of Firefox 1.0 have been downloaded since the product became available two weeks ago.

Microsoft Denies Linux Threats in Asia

Responding to reports that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer "warned" government leaders in Asia not to adopt Linux-based solutions because of possible intellectual property (IP) lawsuits, representatives of the software giant say that's not what happened at all. "This was not ... a 'warning'," a Microsoft spokesperson said this week, noting that the comments Ballmer made about Linux and IP lawsuits were just a tiny part of his presentation. "Steve [Ballmer] was referring to a study done by the Linux community group Open Source Risk Management (OSRM), a pro-free and open-source software organization. According to its ... August announcement, OSRM states that Linux could be in violation of 283 patents and, as such, could expose customers to undetermined licensing costs." So, I wasn't at this event, of course, but looking over his comments, it's pretty clear to me that Ballmer was, indeed, warning people about potential lawsuits for adopting Linux. I'm unclear about what the rebuttal here is.

Gates: 64-Bit Computing to Go Mainstream in 2005

Stating an opinion I've heard from numerous Microsoft representatives this year, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates said last week at the IT Forum in Copenhagen that PCs and servers based on the 64-bit x64 platform will soon be mainstream, volume products. "This [migration to x64] will provide the ability to mix 32-bit and 64-bit [code with] a very simple recompilation for any application you might want to run, using the full 64-bit address base," he said. "Even the most expensive mainframe will not deliver the performance that industry-standard hardware running Windows will deliver. The work Intel and AMD do at the chip level means the 64-bit capabilities are going to come into your servers with no premium in price. The same type of pricing with the servers that you have today will be available with 64-bit capability." Today, you can purchase AMD-based x64 systems that utilize Athlon-64 and Operton chips (I'm currently testing an Athlon-64 based system), while Intel is shipping its EM64T-based Xeon chips, with x64 Pentium 4's expected soon.

Nintendo Ships DS Handheld

Video game giant Nintendo this week shipped its first batch of Nintendo DS handheld game systems to US customers in a bid to extend its dominance in the handheld gaming market. The $150 DS (for "dual screen") features a clamshell design, two LCD screens, and a unique stylus-based input system that, along with the embedded buttons, emulates the effect of using a mouse and keyboard on PC-based games. But the DS isn't just a game system. Targeted at the crucial market of gamers in their teens and 20's--a market that is far older than traditional Nintendo users--the DS also includes wireless multiplayer gaming and communications capabilities, a microphone, and stereo speakers. It's aimed at more sophisticated users than previous Nintendo machines, but is also backwards compatible with GameBoy and GameBoy Advance titles. My early experience with a DS has been overwhelmingly positive: My guess is that Nintendo will sell millions of these things.

So Server Sales Soar, Study Says; Sun Sinks (Sorry)

Tongue-twisting titles notwithstanding, research firm IDC reported this week that server sales continued to rise in Q3 2004, with Dell gaining ground on Sun Microsystems. The market for servers jumped 5.5 percent in the quarter to $11.5 billion, marking the sixth consecutive quarter of growth. IBM retained the top spot, with 32 percent of revenues, followed by Hewlett-Packard (HP), which took 27 percent of the market. Sun was number three, followed by Dell.

Happy Holidays!
We won't be publishing the WinInfo Daily UPDATE newsletter Thursday or Friday this week because of the Thanksgiving holiday here in the United States. However, if anything dramatic happens, I'll post to the WinInformant Web site. Otherwise, have a great long weekend. See you on Monday ...

Nintendo DS is not backward compatible with GameBoy - only with GameBoy Advance.

So how does releasing an Update Rollup instead of a Service Pack better mean the needs of customers? "When a service pack is released, Microsoft will provide 12 months of support for the previous service pack." This better means Microsoft's needs of ending general support for Windows 2000 in June 2005.

No SP5? Do Microsoft think they will ever be seriously considered in Corporate circles when they don't even properly support a 4 year old OS? How are people who upgraded from NT4, or in our case Novell, meant to feel? That we've got to invest all the resources to upgrade everything, including simple file & print servers, to Win2003 just to have proper support? Before we changed from Netware 4 - an OS that was by this stage at least 6 years old, Novell were still releasing fixes, and had just done a service pack.... Looks like Microsoft never intend (properly) fixing the bugs in Win2k - unless you want to pony up your Visa, so they can charge you for a fix that should be not only free, but easily available for all (like a new SP). Take for example KB #824301 - a simple bug that many, many people face.... there are so many more that need to be released in SP5.... not just some security rollup. Sorry for the diatribe, but it annoys me soooo much.

Me again (above post)... It strikes me that Microsoft is now so 'security focused' that they have completely forgotten their customers. Whilst I don't doubt the importance of security fixes - they shouldn't be blinkered into that this is all we need. I can see that we (and probably many more) will stick with Win2K SP3.... MS will continue to bleet about how corporates aren't patching their systems, yet they only provide minimal support once the products successor is available. MS obviously intend to do consumer OS support, not what enterprises want.

No SP5? This blows! Why do they continue to do this? I love Win2K and use it strictly at the office, very reliable it has been. You know XP is based on the code for 2000. They need to make a SP-5, fix bigs and at least give us the latest IE, even if no firewall or whatever.

This is bad news for me. Any SP4 machine I've seen so far seemed to be doomed and the respective owner would reinstall/upgrade in two months tops afterwards. I'll stick to SP3 for as long as possible (or until my company decides to upgrade to Linux :-) ).

Very and very bad, if SP5 will not be released. It is very convenient to install the package of upgrades for one operation instead of swinging garbage from Internet. The safety of computers without SP5 will be lowest and eventually all claims of the users will be directed to the corporation Microsoft. Alas, but beautiful WinXP will not replace W2K. W2K there is best corporate OS on today, due to absence in it that is necessary for the home user. Microsoft itself deletes that it achieved many years, namely - confidence of the users to its software products.

I have been using SP-4 since it first came out and have not had to do any re-install on the two machines i run it on. It has been that good for me. I also have installed it for people at least 25 times and always went well expect for one and that was from a bad HD controller on the motherboard. Have you heard of autopatcher? Go to www.autopatcher.com and you will see what i mean. I did not know it existed either until a few days ago and seems to work very well. Nice job by those guys and it is free!

Based on decisions from the past, Microsoft has never been a good judge of other companies' business decisions. What makes them think businesses want a security rollup package instead of SP5? As for me I've been waiting for SP5 for quite a while. I don't want to have to keep downloading the same darn patches over and over again for each new workstation that I set up. I certainly hope they change their decision! W2K will remain the main business OS until probably Longhorn...

Yet another NOS is swept under the rug to push those on older platforms to conform to the newest technology, needed or not! I feel for those in "little to no budget land!"

You people seem to be missing the whole idea behind a SR release and a SP5 release, the only difference in the two is the overall size of the package. A SP5 release would have all the SP1-4 patches in it as well, making each new SP bigger then the other one each time. an SR will just have the newer patches and not the older SP1-4 patches in it. This makes the overall size of it smaller. and I'm sure you can slipstream this into an 2k CD like you can with SP's, if you had to do a new clean install, you'd just install SP4 then this SR, and if you have them on the CD it does it automatically when you install. Where is the wrong in this? And for that matter what is the problem with it?

To be honest, I use W2K and it's the last M$ OS I'll go to (XP product activation ?? and yes I do have all legal software). My next HOME PC will be an Apple - period. Thanks M$ for making the decision so easy !

Me again ! And to the person who posted before me, I don't have SP4 (I only went to SP3 because of the reported problems people had with SP4), so does that mean I'll need to get SP4 installed and then the roll-up ?? Or will I be able to go from SP3 to SR5 ??

Get a grip! We are talking about an enterprise class OS - not something that is "played" around with at home! Having used many OSs over the last 25 years - Microsoft bends over backwards to offer long-term support and backwards compatibility (often to the detriment of the product itself!). They are in a Catch-22 situation - they are popular, therefore all the OS bigots hate them and ridicule anything they do. Unfortunately for all you OS bigots and techno-perfectionists the people who use this technology as a business tool on a day to day basis love it and would bitterly oppose (and have) any change to Linux or Mac-based OSs or applications. Remember - whether you like it or not - Microsoft (however un-competitive people may say they are) do NOT force people to buy their products. People purchase them out of their own freewill to satisfy business needs. In the UK we have the choice of putting Windows or Linux on a PC or purchasing a MAC. Call it laziness or stupidity but most people and companies purchase a PC and keep Windows on it - because it DOES WHAT THEY WANT IT TO DO. They don't care if it hasn't got a purist OS installed. When the Linux and MAC bigots get over themselves and start looking at their products from a purely business perspective then we might see the "killer applications" that these OSs are crying out for. Finally, before I get the usual "you don't know nothing Windows idiot user" responses - I use a G4 Power Cube and G4 iBook (both running MAC OS X Panther) as my personal machines and know how many security patches and updates Apple ship for them. I have used Redhat and Suse distro's but currently prefer Mandrake. As for the original article I am replying to - having seen the OS support offered by most vendors (Sun, HP, IBM, Digital etc) I can only consur that MS are getting a very rough ride from people as 4 years is a long time to offer continued support for a product (they are STILL offering support even though they may not be providing another service pack), especially as they have a later version of the OS that has been out for almost 18 months!! Btw, I do not work for MS or have no connection with them but just sick to the back teeth of people knocking them because they are successful! Yes, they need to make vast improvements in the security of their products and in the way they treat customers (especially those outside of the US and Canada) but what option do most non-techno-geeks have?

I just informed our companys CIO of this Microsoft decision. Looks like I will be supporting more Novell or SUN servers in the very near future. Signed Very Frustated Manager. -Microsoft needs help!

MS are very keen on telling everyone about how untruthful Linux is. That you can’t trust open source cause YOU DONT KNOW WHOS BEHIND IT. If you run into a problem who are you going to call? They say you can’t rely on their support. Well now it seems more like we can’t trust MS. And in this case we do know who to blame….I mean call ;-) It’s a very bad decision indeed.

To frustrated manager - when was the last time you could buy a brand new Sun box and install a four-year old version of Solaris on it??? As for Netware - come on!!

I really don't know what people's problem is. The vast majority of patches released on WU are security related, the service packs include these, as well as hotfixes that have been combined, refined, and tested. If you suffer a bug-related problem post SP4, then you can still get hold of hotfixes for them by calling Microsoft - if its a bug that is their fault they will wave the support costs. Not having SP5 doesn't mean Microsoft will stop supporting the product, in fact, Microsoft are going to continue with support of Windows 2000 until 30 June 2010! So, if you have any problems with Windows 2000 not fixed by SP4, then you can still call them for hotfixes!

An OS can only provide or do so much for a person. What people want is APPS! It is all about the applications baby! Some day the OS will be irrelevant, because people are not going to care about what OS they use, they care about the applications they use and their data. Thats my take

BTW, EVERYONE..WINDOWS 2000 IS 5 YEARS OLD (it was released in March 1999). Windows Me in late 2000 and XP in Oct 2001. But since Win2K is the ONLY all-platform release as of date, MS shud have supported it. But dont say that it is the best OS for businesses. XP Professional is the logical successsor with all (and new features to Windows 2000). and Windows Server 2003 Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter Editions are logical successsors to Windows 2000 Server, Advanced Server and Datacenter Server. There's also a Win2k3 Web Server. Sorry if I'm deviating from the topic but MS has made a bad decision this time. Why doesn't everyone BOMBARD their emails and sites with angry oppositions against this decision?

Re: post above. You are incorrect. Microsoft lists the general availability date of Win2k as 31-Mar-2000. Link here: http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifewin Even if you count the release to manufacturing, MS only claims 12/15/99. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/1999/Dec99/W2KrtmPR.asp

Microsoft CEO Bill Gates??? This changed Jan 13- 2000. Bill is now Chairman, Chief Software Architect. - Great weekly review as always Paul, keep it up! -http://msinbox.com

Wow, it never ceases to amaze me the number of IT Professionals strewn about the industry lacking a clue or the worthiness of their certifications. There’s no doubt in my mind that Microsoft, like any other business, is bent on the making of money. I also don’t believe that they have the best OS platform on the market. The thing of it is, as was already stated in an earlier response, that many business’ both small and large are already heavily invested in Microsoft products. Making a change to another OS is extraordinarily costly, especially in today’s economy. Mind you that no version of Linux is available for free license in the business community, but it also doesn’t offer much in the means of functional support. To elaborate, if you are experiencing a problem getting a piece of hardware to work on Linux, it’s hit or miss that you’ll even find support for the problem you’re having due to the nearly infinite combinations of equipment out there and the lack of support offered by the manufacturers. Support for applications in some cases is easier to find, but the titles available are limited or exclusive. For that reason, Linux really isn’t a valid choice for the typical home. There are still masses of people that have yet to find a purpose for using or even owning a computer. I couldn’t imagine the number of returns there would be if the standard system at Circuit City featured a Linux derivative over Microsoft when that farmer, trucker, factory worker or otherwise first time “ludite” user tried to install that free copy of the latest AOL delivered by the USPS. How about the frustration of a child that wants to play his Blue’s Clues game because his parents don’t see the educational value behind owning a PS2. Oh, I can’t leave out the mail order Mac. It’s been more than 15 years since I’ve seen a sales or service center offering Apple support. I donated mine to a school some time shortly after Best Buy stopped selling its software and Aldus started producing titles for the PC. I’m actually quite surprised they’ve out lived the Commodore for so long. I do not condone many of the methods and tactics of business practiced by Microsoft, but in this case I don’t see the problem. If you have had problems with the installation of previous service packs released by Microsoft (beyond the rhetoric of assumed security holes) it’s been my experience that it usually stems from a preexisting mis-configuration or a blatant incompatibility or flaw in the hardware being used - not excluding the user. It is inherent that when something is so common place that its vulnerabilities will be exposed and that there will always be perpetrators ready to expose them. There is no change of functionality behind a SR than that of a SP, it’s just less code per shot. Had Microsoft not released this statement and added a registry fix to make the system show SP5, few would have been likely to notice a difference. RE: The people referred to in the previous response “GET A GRIP!” Don’t waste your energy. Get out of the IT field and go back home to your WebTV, MP3 Players and DV-R’s, and stop whoring yourselves in chat rooms.

To the User who mentioned about the #824301 patch for Win2000, you are SO IMMATURE! I asked MS for that patch and I got it for free. Maybe you don't know how to use MS support services properly or just don't know how to request a patch from MS. Win2000 SP4 is quite stable on my machine and I made sure that all my apps work correctly under SP4, even if I have to upgrade the apps or dump some of them if they don't work good under SP4. I agree with the previous Anonymous user. For the people here who are complaining about no Win2k SP5, go take an extended vacation.