NT 5.0: Between A Rock And A Hard Place? zdnet.com
Sounds good to me, depending on who's holding the rock. I still like NT better than Win95, seems much more robust, but it also seems like a resource pig. For whatever reason, it seems to start up with about 30 meg of virtual memory (aka swap space) used and then drift up toward 50meg over a few days. This without anything running, the visible processes seem to add up to maybe 5-6 meg. It couldn't possibly be all those IE dll's pinned down, could it?
Anyway, on to the story:
Does anyone out there have any real information on what's happening with NT 5.0?
Microsoft has stopped talking about the product, other than to insist it's "on track." The most current info I have is from a guy who says he has seen the internal product release schedule. Beta 2, until the past few weeks, was slated to be cut around April 15. Now that date is "TBD." Beta 2 of NT Workstation 5.0 = TBD. Beta 2 of NT Server 5.0 = TBD. Beta 2 of NT Server Enterprise Edition 5.0 = NT Server + 90 Days.
Oh no, could it be that NT5BII, the enterprise beta, will slip into the timeframe of NT2K, the OS for the next millenium? Looks like mysterious Merced is going to win the race without breaking a sweat.
After hyping the heck out of NT 5.0, Microsoft has done a 180-degree turn and is trying to cover its tracks. But the damage already has been done. A recent Gartner Group research note is evidence of that fact.
Gartner, which is estimating that the soonest NT 5.0 will see the light of day is mid-1999, is advising its corporate customers--even "Type A" companies willing to assume a lot of risks--not to even think about adopting NT 5.0 until the year 2000. Corporations not only need to let Microsoft work out the expect NT 5.0 bugs via several service packs, but they also need to save their pennies to address potential Year 2000 software incompatibility problems, Gartner says.
I guess we'll just have to get by with the various PR missives about DNS/DNA until this gets straightened out. One good thing about vaporware, it doesn't crash much.
Cheers, Dan. |
