Choosing the right time to upgrade the operating system

According to predictions, it may be until 2007 that PCs running Windows operating systems will remain the primary tool for businesses and individuals to obtain or transmit information. However, consumer products that provide a variety of information can meet the user's specific lifestyle, work needs, and personal preferences, so it will become a must-have commercial tool. Around 2005, the popularity of computing/communication technology will blur the line between enterprise computing and personal client computing, thus opening a new chapter in lifestyle computing.

META Group estimates that more than 75% of the world's 2000 companies use Windows 2000 or Windows XP. About 60% of enterprise users choose Windows 2000 or Windows XP. The remaining 40% use NT 4 or Windows 98, and 40% will face major operational problems in 2003. By 2004, these issues will affect the user's service level and may affect some of the specialized projects that the company wants to develop, such as security, internal collaboration, customer service, and so on. In 2003, companies must redouble their efforts to update user systems that have not been upgraded, or to develop contingency plans. Fight against the problems that will be encountered in 2004. Since Longhorn (the next operating system upgrade) has been delayed until at least early 2005, the enterprise's client operating system platform software has enjoyed unprecedented stability for a long time. We believe that most companies will not be in 2006. The client operating system is migrated.

Win2000 and WinXP are indeed stable platforms with low problem rates. From the customer's reaction, it is known that changing to Win2000 is the experience that has been the least painful and the most profitable in the operating system upgrade. After upgrading from Win98 to Win2000, the customer found that the new environment is more stable, maintenance is easier, and security vulnerabilities are relatively lower. At present, the reason why NT4 users are not willing to upgrade to Win2000 or WinXP is that NT4 has superior security and stability. However, Win2000 and WinXP provide more significant improvements, from user settings, mobile management capabilities, and even hardware support. The customer asked for a 50% reduction in the number of help-related calls related to the operating system. The problem was less, the user's satisfaction was also improved, and the operating cost was saved by more than 10%. Customers also learned how to make the best use of plug-and-play performance, integrate images and reduce image management costs, saving more than 50%.

Although customers who do not want to update their operating systems can accept Win2000 as a solution, at this stage we believe that if your computer uses more new hardware, the operating system should install WinXP. The reasons are as follows: First, WinXP can enjoy Microsoft's 18 months of support than Win2000. Microsoft's support for WinXP is at least until 2006, and support for Win2000 is only until March 2005. Second, WinXP has fewer problems in supporting new hardware and is slightly better than Win2000.

Despite these benefits, some companies are still reluctant to transfer operating systems, for reasons other than re-installation costs and compatibility issues. In addition, the deterioration of the economic environment has led to the need for enterprises and enterprises to cut costs, and to influence the renewal plan of desktop PCs. However, the combination of several factors makes the upgrade of the operating system an urgent necessity.

Microsoft recently announced a unified lifecycle support policy that provides a unified approach to all software. Microsoft's extended support for NT4 and Win9X (both products are not supported properly) will be officially dated in 2003. After all, the two products are already LKK, and it seems that the end of their extended support will not be too big, but we believe that any operating system has its complexity and extensiveness. Without dealer support, the risk will remain high. Although these two operating systems are unlikely to be major flaws and operate normally, it is still possible that different levels of security issues will occur, and neither Microsoft nor the distributor may be able or willing to resolve these issues.

In addition, Microsoft has stopped supporting hardware manufacturers and software vendors, so once these dealers have problems with the products, they will no longer be able to get help from Microsoft. Therefore, we expect dealers to stop supporting NT4 and Win9x at the end of 2003. Although many products from Microsoft and other independent software companies continue to support NT4, new products may no longer support NT4 in the future. For example, Microsoft's latest version of Media Player does not support NT4, and announced that Office 11 will not support Win2000's previous operating system.

Although companies can circumvent these risks by maintaining the current state of the environment, we believe that this is not practical for a long time. Since the installation base has matured over the past two years, very few companies have not been able to purchase any new systems throughout 2003. Purchasing the new system will increasingly highlight the seriousness of the problem, because we believe that the desktop computer introduced in 2003 and almost all notebooks will no longer support NT4 or Win98. This problem is especially serious for NT4, and NT4's power management or plug-and-play user settings are turned off. Although computer experts like cloud can figure out the contingency, they can't get the support of PC dealers or Microsoft. When they encounter problems, they only want to repair them.

There are two kinds of contingency measures for customers: First, start to use the new system of Win2000/XP; Second, find ways to buy old systems. PC dealers may retain a number of currently important model security transitions this year, but we believe that this will not last until 2004 when old accessories are sold out.

After discussing NT4, the next is Win9X, we found that the security of this operating system is always a problem. Win9x is an environment with numerous security vulnerabilities. When enterprises strive to strengthen network security, Win9x workstations do have major flaws, and the mobile environment is particularly vulnerable. In today's highly interconnected and layered environment, companies find that inefficient firewalls compromise their ability to connect with corporate partners and process customer information.

All companies should develop their own operations, check risks (such as security, lack of dealer support, hidden operational issues), rely on backing (support for new business plans), Operational efficiency (such as support costs, public image), decide whether to complete the operating system upgrade. Companies that have begun to update but have repeatedly delayed the final completion of the process should assess how much maintenance costs are spent in the mixed environment of the old and new systems, and then compare the maintenance costs required to complete the renewal. Based on the current pricing and the possible service life of the system, we believe that the company should resume planned replacement in 2003 and move closer to Win2000/WinXP, which is cost-effective. Companies that have not yet begun to do so must rush to catch up, otherwise at least they should use WinXP when purchasing new systems. In order to minimize maintenance issues and possible confusion, you should freeze the rest of the system (without installing new applications, without changing the device) until you upgrade. Companies that decide to continue to maintain legacy operating systems must prepare for contingency planning, including preparing inventory or looking for ways to negotiate with PC vendors, hoping that suppliers will extend support, and perhaps suppliers will promise to extend for six months until early 2004.

In addition, companies must also change the way they use licenses, because PC manufacturers have lost the license of the old operating system and cannot install the old products in the new model. Therefore, companies must purchase systems that use WinXP before they go down, provide installation media, or install them themselves.

Business Impact: Companies must calculate the incremental maintenance costs of older operating systems, as well as the recurring expenses of implementing legacy operating systems and managing new and old coexisting environments, and then compare the total and upgrade hardware costs. .

Conclusion: Companies should consider 2003 as the year of completion of the transfer to Win2000, to determine that the user's platform performance is stable and cost-effective, can be used until 2006 (that is, the Longhorn operating system will debut) One year).

Attachment: Reasons for no longer supporting hardware

WinXP introduces new drive models for some newer devices, especially wireless products. Although these driver prototypes can be modified into Win2000, they are no longer available for earlier platforms. Suppliers do not want to support the gradual shrinking use of the old system population.

Many new devices are supported only by WinXP, such as tablet PCs, Media Ceneter PCs, and smart displays.

Since 1996, hardware has undergone major changes in some of the basic components, but the software and hardware upgrades introduced since 2002 have not included the NT 4 version. NT4 cannot support USB peripherals (including keyboards, mice, etc.), so many new systems with lower cost (especially notebooks) cannot be used. In addition, almost all new PCs will no longer use APM (Advanced Power Management) this year, but use ACPI (Advanced User and Power Interface), while NT4 does not support ACPI. This change is tantamount to putting an end to NT4's involvement in any form of power management and plug-and-play user design, not only severely limiting its chances of being used on laptops and other PCs.