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Survey Details W2K Reliability

Users of Windows 9x and NT often complain about their stability, citing minor incompatibilities that can explode into fatal system errors. Will this trend continue with Windows 2000? The results of a recent survey indicate otherwise.

Sunbelt Software Distribution Inc. conducted a survey on NT sysadmin and MSCE mailing lists asking beta users about their experiences with Windows 2000. The company received over one thousand responses and tabulated the results.

Users of Windows 2000 Professional found it to be significantly more stable than Windows 9x, with 54 percent of respondents saying that it hardly crashed or did not crash. An additional 22 percent of those surveyed noted that it was much more reliable than Windows 95 or 98.

Compared to NT 4.0 Workstation, over half the respondents said that Windows 2000 Professional is more stable than Workstation, with 26 percent saying that it did not crash or barely crashed.

Since the respondents came from professional mailing lists, they tended to be highly experienced with configuring and using Microsoft operating systems.

Stu Sjouwerman, president of Sunbelt Software (www.sunbelt-software.com), said his company conducts surveys about every two months, to get a better understanding of his customers' needs. "We need to keep abreast of what the market is doing."

He went on to suggest that "it made Microsoft very happy." Indeed, Microsoft released a statement trumpeting the results.

Sunbelt-Software is a distributor and retailer of business related NT and Windows 2000 software. The survey data can be found at http://www.sunbelt-software.com/win2kpro/survey.cfm

Microsoft’s press release resides at http://www.microsoft.com/PressPass/press/2000/feb00/W2KReliabilityPR.asp. -- Christopher McConnell

About the Author

Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.

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