Gartner issues MS warning

Gartner Group has warned Microsoft users not to move over to Windows 2000 for one year because the operating system will not be stable enough.

The software giant will not ship Windows 2000 until the first half of next year, but Thomas Bittman, vice president at Gartner Group, claimed that users should hold off upgrading immediately as it is not expected to be less reliable than NT 4 until the end of 2001.

He said: 'NT isn't the best technology out there and that includes Windows 2000. It is not the only strategic operating system or always the right choice, but it is an important tool and will probably have an important role in the business environment. NT is not the be all and end all, but it does have a role and a purpose.'

Bittman argued that the market perception of NT was about two years behind the reality and it was still much less performant than Unix, particularly in terms of stability, but also with regard to high availability, failover and clustering.

There were also a lack of skills available, which would come to a peak by 2001, when businesses would find themselves losing one staff member for each two they trained. The situation could become a significant inhibitor to growth by 2003, Bittman said.

Finally, Microsoft and its ISVs still had an immature attitude towards business customers, tending to focus on speed to market rather than quality.

Bittman recommended that they always check out references before implementing the operating system rather than becoming reference customers themselves.