What is Microsoft Up To With Windows 2003? Douglas Chick

I think computer people were more excited about Matrix Reloaded being released than they were Windows 2003 Server. Unless Microsoft intends to use the Bush administration tactics to rush in and liberate us from the evils of their last network operating system, Windows 2003 boxes are going to turn yellow on the shelves. And by the time Terminators 3 releases in July, Microsoft wont even get a look in anymore. Add that to another Matrix and Lord of the Rings, and computer people will remember 2003 as the year of blockbuster movies. But thats not the real reason...

Trust, Security and Jobs

These days its difficult to become too thrilled over the prospect of mucking up ones network with something new. As a seasoned network administrator I can tell you from first hand experience that even with three years between new software releases, it takes at least four years just to get the bugs worked out of the last one. Software integration is costly, time consuming and causes more problem than you were hoping it would fix.  If a software company is still writing weekly patches for a three-year-old operating system, why should we trust them with a new one? Microsoft will have its hands full trying to convince the professional computer community to throw caution to the wind and trust them one more time. Unless they have already decided to go over your head?

The Windows 2003 commercial shows a department (its unclear what type of dept.) celebrating after migrating their servers to Windows 2003 and combining 800 domains into 4, saving their company 200 million dollars a years. Wow, 200 millions dollars a year. Thats a lot of money. Even in a deflationary market. The only way a company can have that kind of cash that quickly is by reducing their workforce. So either Windows 2003 is built on an engine powered by overseas outsourcing or it requires less technical people to use it. Thats a commercial aimed at your CEO talking about getting rid of you and I dont think the department celebrating was the IT group.

The big question is, will CEO's who are desperately struggling to save their golden-parachutes and lucrative stock deals, in an ever deflating economy believe that Windows 2003 will save them? Will network administrators, managers and IT Directors trust Windows 2003 enough to integrate it in their networks. And finally in the Matrix Reloaded, why are only white females with big boobs being rescued and not white men? What's Morpheus up to?