"Microsoft Corp. wants software and device driver
vendors to write code that's well tuned and tested so that
Windows 2000 -- under a lot of pressure to be stable --
doesn't fall victim to third-party sloppiness."
"In pursuit of its
goal, Microsoft has mandated... Drivers be... certified. ...a more stringent
specification to earn an 'Optimized for Windows 2000'
logo. ...highest-end Windows 2000 DataCenter will run only
on the systems that have been placed on a "gold"
hardware compatibility list..."
"A survey of corporate
information technology buyers released last week by IDC
revealed deep user concerns about Windows 2000's reliability,
and that could slow adoption."
"But... Microsoft's push to get
vendors to build Windows 2000 optimized code will force
users to upgrade, because a Windows 2000-optimized
application will no longer run on Windows NT 4.0."