Windows worries: What TechRepublic members are saying about Win2K migration

by Angie Stahly | Apr 12, 2000 7:00:00 AM

Takeaway: Statistics seem to indicate a reluctance to migrate to Win2K too soon—and some TechRepublic readers concur. See what's on these members' minds.

Despite Microsoft's promises of better stability in Windows 2000, many IT pros seem to be gnashing their teeth and worrying about potential disasters. And judging from TechRepublic member comments, they’re also feeling a bit resentful of continuous releases of Microsoft "must-have" products.

In a poll we conducted last month, a whopping 42 percent of respondents told us that they would wait until it is absolutely necessary to migrate to Windows 2000. Only 10 percent of members said they would make the change immediately. And a recent StatCenter report , citing a Giga Information Group survey of more than 1,100 Windows NT user firms, offers similar results.

What exactly are the issues of concern, and what might prevent you from making the switch? We took this question to several TechRepublic members and got some feedback regarding their Win2K worries—and in one happy case, what's not to worry about.

Patrick McDonald, an IS coordinator with the U.S. Marine Corps, said, "I figure that ‘bugginess’ will be my major concern… Microsoft is known as much for endless patches, hot fixes, and service packs as for getting a product on the street… I anticipate the first bug to hit the headlines any day now."

Check out Patrick's Peer Directory listing.

Potential bugs and security glitches also concern Ian J. Baker, CIO of Datacraft Asia Ltd., based in Singapore. "We've seen the security scares before in products such as Internet Explorer, and so I expect there will be security issues arising as more of Win2K is deployed and the hacker community increases its knowledge of the product," Baker said.

Baker says his company's approach is not to be at the "bleeding edge,” but rather to hold off for the first or second service packs. He estimates that Datacraft Asia Ltd. will probably put its first Win2K server into production in September or October of this year.

Check out Ian's Peer Directory listing.

Angelo Serra, a programmer/systems manager, said his biggest concern is trying to convince executive management to change operating systems—again. A Win2K migration will require new computers on almost every desktop. "I have trouble justifying why an administrative assistant needs close to 256Mb of RAM just to do their job,” he said. “Sure, RAM is cheap, HDs are cheap, but when you start talking close to 4,000 machines, your costs start to get up around $6 million." He added that his company won't even consider a migration for at least six to nine months, due to a lack of any business case to justify it.

Check out Angelo's Peer Directory listing .

And now for a bit of good news. Brandon Harper, a systems/network technologist, says he has been running a Win2K server as a live file server since the Beta 3 version was released last October. He reports that he’s very satisfied with the product. "Fewer blue screens of death make me happy,” he said.

Harper's only concern about a complete migration is learning to use the Active Directory.

Check out Brandon's Peer Directory listing.