Year 2000 Issues
- Windows 95
Y2K fix kept from users, Computerworld, 5/3
"For almost a year, Microsoft Corp. withheld from its 125 million
corporate users of Windows 95 the information that a software patch was
in the works to make the desktop operating system fully year
2000-compliant...."
I'm sure you've heard the doom and gloom about the millennium bug:
computers, ATMs, and a host of other technological marvels (including
your VCR?) won't know what to do on 1/1/2000 - or maybe haven't a clue
that 29 February 2000 is a real date.
Amazing then to find some schools still investing in computers
running Windows 3.1 and Windows NT 4, two operating systems that are
not fully year 2000 compliant. Maybe they don't realize that the
bug strikes in 17 months.
Every Macintosh ever made is year 2000 compliant. The most ancient
can handle dates for another 20 years, by which time they'll pretty
well be obsolete. Power Macs can handle dates 28 centuries into the
future.
Yet some schools want to move out the Macs, replacing them with
Windows machines running versions of Windows that are not ready for
1/1/2000.
- Windows 3.1 has been obsolete for three years, ever since Windows
95 shipped. Windows 95 is mostly Y2K compliant - and Windows 98 is 100%
Year 2000 compliant, yet some schools are buying antiquated Windows
3.1.
- Windows NT 4.0 is partially, but not fully, Year 2000 compliant.
Microsoft, which has a history of late software releases, promises that
version 5.0 will be available before 1/1/2000.
Curiously, these school intend to keep buying such systems for the
next five or six years, as long as it takes to replace all their old
Apple hardware.
You'd think they'd choose a year 2000 compliant solution in
1998, but it seems someone was not thinking clearly in electing to move
from compliant Macs to less than fully compliant versions of
Windows.
Further Reading
- Y2K: Is
Apple safe?, SCM Consultants.
- Apple
failing to exploit Y2K advantage?, MacSoldiers, 8/13. "There is
also an advantage to targeting an advertising campaign to computer
owners whose computers have actually stopped working."
- Macs vs. Y2K, Low End Mac,
8/3. "We switched off the 26 NT machines and fired up our Macintosh
equipment."
- The real Y2K
problem, Ottawa Computes, 7/99 [MacNN]. "Macs are so Y2K compatible that
Revenue Canada specifically excludes them from its special accelerated
depreciation tax rules for Y2K replacement."
- One
more Windows 98, Jerry Pournelle, Byte.com, 5/10
"You will recall a few years ago, Microsoft announced Win 2000 would
take the place of both Win NT for offices and servers, and of Win 98
for consumers."
- Major
PC makers plan Y2K alliance, ZDNet, 5/7
"Analyst's aren't convinced that the effort will have a significant
impact on Y2K understanding or readiness."
- Windows 98 SE
(second edition) released to PC makers, Cnet, 5/5
"Microsoft has been criticized in some circles for charging users for
what is essentially an OS update, especially as it is a departure from
past practices."
- Windows 95 Y2K
fix kept from users, Computerworld, 5/3
"For almost a year, Microsoft Corp. withheld from its 125 million
corporate users of Windows 95 the information that a software patch was
in the works to make the desktop operating system fully year
2000-compliant...."
- Ready
or not, Windows 2000 on its way, ZDNet, 4/12
"Microsoft's latest tactic: Ship the beta as if it were finished
code."
- Mac Y2K
problem software, Macnologist
- Y2K, Low End Mac
- Windows
98 needs update for Y2K compliance, Microsoft TechNet
- Death of
Windows 3.1, ZDNet, 2/3
- Vendor 2000 lists over
3,000 vendors and 125,000 products for Y2K compliance
- Macintosh and
Y2K, SCM Consultants
- Five Y2K
myths, ZDNet
- Apple and the
Year 2000
"While many other computer applications and operating systems cannot
correctly process dates after Dec. 31, 1999, the Mac OS and most Mac
applications will handle the year 2000 (and the next 27,940 years), no
problem."
- Y2K: Mac Owners Beware by Dan
Knight, 6/15/98
"Sure, even the first Macintosh can handle dates to 06.28:15 A.M. on
Feb. 6, 2040."
- Bears
and Bugs, the Mac's got them beat by Garry Barker, 6/16/98
"Finally, after the loyal soldiers in the trenches have been bleating
for years about the Mac's immunity, Apple itself has emerged across the
now shell-torn no-man's-land of Year 2000-compliance to explain in
detail that the Macintosh doesn't have a problem with times or dates
and never has."
