InfoWorld: IT proceeds with caution [on Windows 2000]

“When Microsoft executives said in 1997 that they were ‘betting
the company’ on Windows 2000 — due for a formal launch next week,
and already up and running in many enterprises — they weren’t
exaggerating.

Nevertheless, IT managers aren’t concerned with Microsoft’s
financial fortunes as much as they are with Active Directory
challenges, weighing alternatives such as Linux, and ensuring
security and stability for new dot-com ventures. Just more than
half of the IT managers participating in the InfoWorld survey said
they plan to implement Windows 2000 this year.”

“Windows 2000’s fortune will likely be made or lost on the
server side. With Active Directory, Microsoft finally is offering a
complete directory solution. … ‘Most people, including those
strongly in the Active Directory camp, seem to think that it’s a
first-generation directory service and it’s not quite there, it’s
not quite as competitive across the board as far as NDS is from
Novell,’ says Dwight Davis, an analyst at Summit Strategies, in
Kirkland, Wash.”

“Open-source Linux is also steadily gaining acceptance on the
server end of the enterprise… Its price tag — free — is
appealing, as is its reliability and the burgeoning developer
community surrounding it. ‘Linux has been somewhat suspect in
performance compared to NT 4.0, and if Windows 2000 raises the bar,
it raises the bar above where Linux is competing,’ Davis says.
‘On the other hand, there’s no stopping Linux being the key
alternative to Windows 2000 for as far as we can
see.’ “

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