Original Sender : DasaMan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------- Forwarded by DasaMan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ---------------- Original message follows ---------------- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 4 Nov 1999 22:11:24 -0000 Subject: [win-2000] Win2000 Insider Vol. 1, Issue 32 November 4, 1999 -- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Win2000 Insider Vol. 1, Issue 32 November 4, 1999 By Serdar Yegulalp, Winmag.com IN THIS ISSUE: * STICKER SHOCK: WINDOWS 2000 HITS THE STREETS * MICROSOFT HCL: O BRAVE NEW LIST! * TIP: SORT YOUR START BUTTON STICKER SHOCK: WINDOWS 2000 HITS THE STREETS Microsoft and I have a date: February 17. Actually, a lot of us will have a date with Microsoft that day -- it's the day Windows 2000 officially hits store shelves. Obviously, for those of us in the know, Win2K will be in our hot little hands long before then. 2/17/00 -- I mean 2/17/2000, got to watch those two-digit years! -- is just the official "street date" for the product as it will be shrink-wrapped, boxed, and price-stickered. And speaking of price stickers: How much are they charging, exactly? First: Are you sitting down? You are? Good. Because for those of us with fairly tight wallets, the news isn't good. Windows 2000, more than ever before, is aimed at professionals -- not hobbyists, not "prosumers", but big-business professionals who live or die by their server/workstation setups. Win2K Professional, the standalone version for new users, is $319. That's steep, if you ask me, but I suspect the price will come down a touch once they find out how much demand they will really be dealing with. It's also an ERP, which means that nobody's obliged to sell it at that price. Next are the upgrade prices, which is where things get a little better -- but there's still something odd going on. An upgrade >from Win95 or Win98 is $219 -- but an upgrade from Windows NT Workstation is $149. What?! I suspect they feel fewer Win95/98 users than NT users will try making the leap to Win2K, but in my eyes that's a stupid move. Again, though, these are estimates. Now things get really steep. Win2K Server, with ten client access licenses (or CALs), is $1,199. Ouch. An upgrade from an existing NT Server (also with 10 CALs) is much less painful: $599. That's close to what NT Server itself costs brand spanking new. Advanced Server, with 25 CALs, is a whopping $3,999. (That costs almost as much as the server itself.) For upgrades, it's $1,999. Sweating yet? The server pricing is where things are really getting stratospheric, and I think I know why. E-business, e-commerce, e- you-name-it is hot, hot, hot, and Microsoft doesn't want to get left out of possible profits from the rush to get an "e" stuck onto the front of everything. The bad news is that if Microsoft are ornery enough about their pricing -- where you wind up paying through the nose for everything, especially access licenses -- folks may start taking Linux (se habla FREE?) a lot more seriously. This has all long been an issue with me, and I want to explore it in detail in upcoming columns, as soon as my Linux guinea pig computer arrives. One look at the comparison charts for Win2K Server convinced me they're pushing hard to make this pricing model stick with big, big spenders. Case in point: their comparison system for a Windows 2K Advanced Server box was a Sun UE3500: "8X336MHz CPUs, 2GB Memory, 144GB Disk, Solaris; total Price: approximately $196,000." My HOUSE didn't cost that much. Microsoft has this chockablocked against their own Win2K config, which they feel to be comparable: "8X550 MHz Pentium III Xeon CPU, 2GB Memory, 144GB Disk Windows 2000 Advanced Server; total Price: approximately $95,471." Far more reasonable, clearly, but still. . . they're clearly not setting up this pricing structure for the sake of Joe User. Win2K Server and Advanced Server are aimed squarely at people who are building businesses on the scale of eBay or Amazon.com. Interestingly, there aren't any comparison charts for Win2K Workstation vs. any other kinds of workstation configs probably because Microsoft figures it's a choice between Windows, Windows and Windows at that level. (And in many ways, they're right.) But with WinMillennium being pounded out quietly, as we speak, the newly announced Win2K pricing structure has forced us to consider who Win2K really is for. Or who Microsoft thinks it's for. MICROSOFT HCL: O BRAVE NEW LIST! The Hardware Compatibility List hasn't just been updated -- it's been reborn. And for the better, from the look of it: http://www.microsoft.com/hcl/default.asp The biggest problems I have always had with the HCL were twofold: one, ugly; two, impossible to navigate. Ugly is self-explanatory: there's nothing particularly photogenic or interactive (that's #2) about a simple text list. With Microsoft babbling out of both sides of its mouth about XML this and live-data that, how come they took so long to get an obviously-perfect use for such technologies as the HCL out of the box? Well, better late than never, I guess. The list is remarkably simple to use. Pick a device category from the drop-down list and hit GO to get a full breakdown by manufacturer and OS about which devices are supported where. Everything's clickable: if you select a device name, you get complete details about where to get the driver, platform notes, and anything else they felt was useful to mention about said device. For instance, I'm big on digital video and capture cards, so I fired up that list and saw some rather depressing news for video capture under Win2K. Most of the stuff supported so far is USB- only, none of which I have. However, I checked the Hauppauge site (makers of the WinTV/PCI board) and found they had a preliminary Win2K driver. So the list doesn't always feature stuff in development, which may be available for testing. You may need to do a little homework of your own, as always, to figure out exactly what's out there. TIP: SORT YOUR START BUTTON If you're sick of the program list in your Win2K start button looking so haphazard, try this simple fix: Open the Programs menu and right-click on the list, then select "Sort by name". A much cleaner list is yours to behold. --------------------------- ONElist Sponsor ---------------------------- Hey Freelancers: Find your next project through JobSwarm! You can even make $$$ in your sleep by referring friends. <a href=" http://clickme.onelist.com/ad/jobswarm1 ">Click Here</a> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TALK ABOUT IT Discuss this column on the WinMag.Com Forums, found at http://bbs.winmag.com/forum/ EXPLORE THE ARCHIVES Here's a hot tip: Check out the Win2000 Newsletter archives: http://www.Winmag.com/win2000/newsletter/archive.htm FINE PRINT If you like this newsletter, please share it with your friends and co-workers, and encourage them to sign up! It's free. To subscribe to or unsubscribe from this newsletter: * Use your browser to visit our Newsletter Subscription Center: http://www.onelist.com/community/win-2000. Click "Join Community" to subscribe to the list. If you have comments about this newsletter or suggestions for future issues, don't be bashful about telling me what you like or don't like, send me e-mail at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1999 CMP Media Inc. A service of Winmag.com and Windows Magazine ---------------------------------------------------------------- Compu-Mania MailingList is provided by PT Centrin Utama Maintained by : [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Post a msg : Send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe : Mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] BODY : unsubscribe Compu-Mania For more information, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "HELP" in the BODY of your mail (without quote). ----------------------------------------------------------------
