“…only the discovery of the mother of all bugs will keep this
operating system from going gold before the end of the year.”
“Why am I so sure? All the signs are there… Another reason…?
Starting with Beta 3 RC2, Windows 2000 will be an Intel X86-only
operating system. …Microsoft won’t have to build Windows 2000 for
Alpha any more, as Compaq has decided to pull the plug on
NT-on-Alpha development (due, in substantial part, to the
popularity of Linux on Alpha–but that’s another story).”
“When Microsoft first began work on the NT OS/2 project, as it
was then called, the company had five goals for NT: Portability,
reliability, extensibility, compatibility and performance.
NT once was a portable OS: it ran on PowerPC, MIPS…, Alpha and
Intel. Microsoft has said its experience developing NT for RISC
platforms helped it prepare for its next big challenge: making NT a
true 64-bit operating system that will ship concurrently with
Intel’s IA-64 processor. Hmmm….
Portability seems to have been relegated to the scrap heap.
Compatibility seems to have been moved to the back burner, as
well. … The result…? All NT hands currently are charged with
making sure off-the-shelf and custom apps will be able to work on
Windows 2000 once it ships. Remember Microsoft’s last-minute
scramble to insure Windows 95 app compatibility? Here we go
again.”