W2K and IE7?
p2pnet.net News:- If you’re a Windows 2000 user who’s eagerly looking forward to using the next version of Internet Explorer, forget it.
It seems Windows 2000 is, to all intents and purposes, now dead and buried.
“There are two important events that will happen to the support policy for Windows 2000 after June 30th of this year,” says Christopher on the Microsoft Internet Explorer Weblog.
“First, support for both IE 5.01 SP3 and IE 6 SP1 on Windows 2000 SP3 will expire. Users running IE 5.01 or IE 6 SP1 on Windows 2000 should upgrade to Windows 2000 SP4 in order to continue to receive security updates.
“Second, Windows 2000 SP4 moves from mainstream to extended support.
“The key difference between mainstream support and extended support which I think is most relevant to this audience is this quote from the lifecycle site: ‘Microsoft will not accept requests for warranty support, design changes, or new features during the Extended support phase.’
“We will of course continue to keep our Windows 2000 SP4 customers secure with security updates through the life of Windows 2000 (through 2010). There are a few other differences between the two support models which you can read about at the lifecycle site. You may also want to read my previous post about Windows’ lifecycle.
“It should be no surprise that we do not plan on releasing IE7 for Windows 2000. One reason is where we are in the Windows 2000 lifecycle. Another is that some of the security work in IE7 relies on operating system functionality in XPSP2 that is non-trivial to port back to Windows 2000.
“Please note that these lifecycle changes are only for IE on Windows 2000. For questions about other versions of IE (IE for PocketPC, IE for Mac), please consult the lifecycle site for the latest expiration dates.”
Is this a Big Deal?
"People using Windows 2000 should be in the advanced planning/early rollout stages of their upgrade to get off of Windows 2000 by now, anyway," posts James on the blog.
"Therefore, I see this news as irrelevant."
But, " This is a bad decision," says Chloe. "You are making a mistake if you think that by having IE7 in common use and not being available on Win2K you will accelerate upgrades to Longhorn.
"Sticking to a ‘lifecycle policy’ is admirable generally, but you must have flexibility otherwise you will get hurt. You are needlessly giving away valuable market share. There are simply too many alternatives now which work on Windows 2000.
"Obviously XP and Longhorn must have developer priority now, but why not backport to 2000 after it is launched?"
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
June 2nd, 2005 at 7:55 pm
That is one of the main reasons why I chose Linux of Win2k. Why should I be forced to buy another product when the one I currently have works just fine? If the new version of Windows offered compelling new features that benefits me, then they would not have to force people to buy a new operating system just to repair their security lapses.
I know, with Linux (SuSE) security upgrades are available with just a simple download.
June 3rd, 2005 at 1:29 am
I like W2K. I still use W2K. Just because MS says so doesn’t make it obsolete. W2K isn’t just going to stop working. W2K is great for slower hardware. Their beloved XP is built on W2K.
And as for IE7, really, I couldn’t care less. After installing Mozilla years ago, I haven’t looked back. I buried IE as much as I could (can’t uninstall, you see) and don’t care if I ever see that little blue “e” again.
June 3rd, 2005 at 7:52 am
damn you microsoft… they drop support for their operating systems… WAY too early… T_T
June 4th, 2005 at 3:41 am
http://litepc.com/
Yes, you CAN remove IE. Completely.
February 9th, 2006 at 9:48 pm
W2K rocks, IE sucks. what’s more to say?…