US developers shun Windows 2000

About two thirds of US development managers plan to delay writing applications for Windows 2000 until 2001 or later.

According to a report from US research group Evans Marketing Services (EMS), it also found that more than 31 per cent plan never to write Windows 2000 applications. The operating system is scheduled to ship on 17 February.

The survey also revealed that those companies running NT on the majority of client computers are not planning to write any applications based on Windows 2000, and 55 per cent of NT users will not write applications based on the operating system for at least 12 months.

Janel Garvin, vice president of research at EMS, commented: "We've known for the past year that corporate America is taking a wait and see attitude towards Windows 2000."

She added: "But the fact that well over half have no plans to adopt Windows 2000 until 2001 or later and that a large percentage of NT users plan never to migrate starts to look like a sea change. At the same time, support for Linux and opensource software is significantly stronger than six months ago and showing signs of growing fast."

The survey, based on phone interviews with 400 development or IT managers at large US companies, backs that of other research companies such as Gartner.

Gartner Group has predicted that although Microsoft's Windows 2000 will be made generally available in the first half of 2000, mainstream enterprises should wait for the first major proven working service pack before deploying large scale production implementations. This should be six to nine months after Windows 2000 ships next month.

Michael Gartenberg, analyst at Gartner, commented: "Alternatives to Windows 2000 exist. NT 4 will be publicly available for new purchases through year end 2001. For enterprises that have standardised on Windows 9x, Windows 98 continues to be a viable option for new hardware purchases."

He added: "Enterprises should determine the migration costs and the benefits Windows 2000 brings before proceeding to bring the new OS into their environments."