[ Thanks to Myddrin
for this link. ]
“…Active Directory has been such a bear to implement that very
few Windows 2000 Server customers are using it. “For the great
unwashed masses in the middle, there are no immediate plans to
deploy Active Directory,” said Giga Information Group analyst Laura
DiDio. Meanwhile, the uptake of Windows 2000 Datacenter Server is
thought to be very modest, with sales numbering in the low
hundreds, according to sources close to the company. …
Datacenter is sold only as a pre-configured, pre-certified
hardware-software package from a handful of server makers, most of
which resell Unisys hardware under their own brand names.”
“On the plus side, Datacenter can scale to run on 32-processor
Intel systems, allowing Microsoft and its partners to pitch it as a
system with mainframe-level reliability. “Customers either love the
lockdown, because they know it’s certified and ensured, or they
hate it, and they decide to go with Advanced Server, instead,” said
an executive with a Microsoft systems-integration partner, who
spoke on the condition of anonymity.”
“In the end, Microsoft’s biggest Windows 2000 competition may
turn out to be its own products, namely its Windows 2000
successors, Windows XP (formerly code-named Whistler) and the first
Microsoft.Net release, code-named Blackcomb. … “Windows 2000
is colliding with Whistler (Windows XP), which is colliding with
.Net,” said Giga analyst DiDio. “It’s a huge train wreck that’s
creating confusion out there.”