Microsoft Corp. plans to announce as early as next week that it is ready to ship a Windows 2000 Update Rollup, the final security patch for the 5-year-old operating system. Microsoft has drawn some criticism after confirming that it will not make the next version of Internet Explorer available to users of its Windows 2000 operating system.
Microsoft to Roll Out Windows 2000 Update Rollup
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
“Roll Out Windows 2000 Update Rollup”
It’s kinda catchy – I’m trying to sing it already !
hmm, it’s not working …
i can’t wait to have to pay for the support i already paid for!
i aint no Roll Out Windows 2000 Update Rollup girl
b a n n a n a….
nah….
Security patches will still be free. It’s the tech support calls and such that will cost money now.
Let’s see Linux distro makers fully support their distros for 5 whole years, and then for another 5 years by providing free security patches.
That was high time to release a pack like this.
Its very sad to see, that a w2k box slipstreamed with sp4 is still vulnerable to Code Red (do you remember?.. yes, it wasnt a recent issue) after install.
I have to say it once more: win2000 is the best OS of microsoft
No longer supporting NT 5.0 but they still support NT 5.1. Yet somehow, there is still support for Windows 98/ME. This really is stupid to say the very least. So it seems we’re reaching the point where software will be for XP/2003 only (even though both are NT 5.x as is Windows 2000). They better get cracking on a new server OS because gosh darn it, Server 2003 is coming of age!
You were the first person to mention linux
.
is and was the best… love it – no service packs for me tho and no updates it is perfect the way it is…
Only using about 30meg at idle… simply amazing
Were the only decent OS’s MS ever made. 3.51 because there was so little it could do, it was secure. 2000 because MS married directx with NT without XP’s call-home DRM BS.
The company I work for and I still run 2000, not XP. Over the last year and a half, we have been migrating all our software to a web-based solution and as soon as MS pulls the plug on 2000, we are leaving Microsoft (hopefully) forever.
You really should install SP4 … it fixes a lot of quirks and definitely improves performance in many areas. Windows 2000 without any Service Packs was quite a quirky little beast.
Chris: I realize that. It’s obvious that someone here would have drawn a comparison between Windows and Linux at some point (“oh noes, Linux support is free!1!1” or something) so I wanted to silence the kiddie trolls before they even piped up.
There’s that constant FUD about XP calling home … but I have yet to see ANY conclusive evidence. Care to provide it?
“Chris: I realize that. It’s obvious that someone here would have drawn a comparison between Windows and Linux at some point (“oh noes, Linux support is free!1!1″ or something) so I wanted to silence the kiddie trolls before they even piped up.”
No big deal, it’s not like it’s annoying when people trounce into “distro review xyz” and announce their love for Windows
. But linux is truly out of the scope of this one.
lol, anyways…
Get a full duplexing firewall and see for yourself.
“There’s that constant FUD about XP calling home … but I have yet to see ANY conclusive evidence. Care to provide it?”
Ever heard of product activation? And he was talking about DRM.
Roll, Roll, Roll your Rollup…
Gently down the stream…
Activation != “calling home DRM”. Silly kids. Go back to compiling kernels.
I wanted to report abuse on that last compliment, but geez I can’t help but see the compliment in it!
nothing is broke on my w2k so what would I be fixing with a service pack
I use to install one of the service packs maybe 2 but it seemes to use a lot more resources even at idle and took longer to boot… Like I said right now I have it down to under 30megs at idle i think it is….and that is on a inspiron 1100
i cant think of anything I am missing out on… enlighten me if you wish
What your missing out on is security fixes that are only available in the service packs. If you’re running an un-updated win2k box, you have plenty to worry about. Right now a .jpg can infect you, that’s how bad it is.
But I also sympathize with you. I have a celery/433 that everything runs poorly on except 2000 un-updated. A fresh install of 2000 and that computer zooms. Update or load Xp or any current distro running KDE, Gnome, or XFce and the computer crawls.
There’s that constant FUD about XP calling home … but I have yet to see ANY conclusive evidence. Care to provide it?
—————————————————————
Yes, put a software firewall on your machine and check out your log files. For a giggle, make sure your auto-update is disabled, so it doesn’t look like auto-update is calling home. Now go through your log files and see that your system is calling home.
Can I install the latest binary RPM/DEB/whatever of Firefox/GAIM/amaroK on a 5-year-old+ distro? No? Why not? Don’t tell me this is a pro — it’s a con.
————————————————————–
Not without installing some updated libraries. The same thing happens with Microsoft. Last time I had to manually download MDAC. So, it happens both ways.
On a side note:
1) There are quite a few applications that won’t install without a MINIMUM Service Pack. Here is just one example:
“Windows XP Home, Pro, MCE (Service Pack 1, 2), Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4).” The link can be found here:
http://www.saversoftware.co.uk/details-426.htm
Yes, google is your friend.
So how is this any different than a Linux distro doing binary updates of their core library and MS issuing SP’s?
Granted there are some app’s that do not need any SP levels to get installed, it just means that they are using libraries that MS hasn’t updated or there is sufficient backwards compaitibility in their existing lib’s. But running and depending on libraries that old cause stability issues.
Not all is perfect in MS or any other OS.
And why would you bring Linux into this argument. Grow up and face some facts about the world.
On a side note Tom, did you bother read the 2nd link? If not let me past the title for you.
“Windows 2000 users to miss out on IE 7”
Now let me ask, can a w2k user download and install IE7 and have it work on windows 2000? How is the backwards compatibility for IE7 and w2k?
I guess browser and os intergration isn’t all that wonderful. As i sit here typing on a w2k box.
When you can use a gem like Opera 8.0
Much nicer than anything Redmond can come up with and works on, I believe, all versions of Windows as well as everything else.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with using an operating system that’s coming the end of it’s so-called “life cycle” – a term which is simply code for a mechanism designed to push sales of new products.
2k is just a stable and a little bit faster than XP, and heaps better at video playback and processing. It is the best os around atm.
Rollup or no rollup I will be using 2k until there is no longer hardware to run it on. XP is still to buggy and frustrating to use on a daily basis.
Does anyone know whether 2k is compatible with the new dual core cpus?
Buggy? Not that I’m attacking you here, but can you provide a list of XP bugs that affect you?
As for video playback, XP is much better than 2K. Just recently, a friend of mine was complaining that he couldn’t get smooth DVD video playback on his P4 1.6 GHz in Win2K. He tried it in XP, and it was perfectly smooth. Yes, drivers were all installed.
On more modern hardware, XP is snappier than 2K. On older hardware, 2K is still the best bet.
Win2k ,being my favourite windows os,moving to the extended phase made me switch to Linux on two of my three machines.Server and desktop.
The last only rides on XP to stay in touch with what my clientele is using.
I don’t see WTF the problem is with 2K being in “Extended” support. There seems to be a misconception that Microsoft will charge you for everything in this phase. That is simply NOT TRUE.
You still get security patches for another 5 years — free of charge.
I cant live without cleartype font rendering on my lcd’s.
It still makes a fine server though.
think about it.
1) virtually no DRM anywhere in the system(at least not without WMP9+)
2) even without any service packs, solid as a rock (at least for me)
3) lets you run all the latest games
4) compatible with almost all windows software.
5) and NO HORRIBLY ANNOYING FISHER-PRICE GUI BULLSHIT like XP (and yes, i know you can turn it off ion xp…that’s not the point)
i’ll be using win2k until 2k10 when they kill off security updates, and even possibly after that in certain circumstances
Yep, Look I have done lots of testing between the two both on a dual boot and stand alone installs.
As far as video goes if you take a large mpeg4 avi, say 1-2gb, open it up in windows 2000 (Media Player Classic) and drag the window around the screen you’ll see the movie stay put inside the frame. If you do this in XP the video will lag behid the window frame by as much as 10mm. If you do the same test with a large uncompressed avi (say 15 – 70gb video capture) moving the window while playing back in XP will produce stutters, sound drop outs, and then playback will stop altogether. 2k handles it fine. I call this apalling video performance.
Just so yo know, I did extensive test on clean installs with latest and best drivers for my hardware ( an nForce/radeon setup on an athlon 2600 w 512mb hi quality ram).
As for XP bugs, it seems unable to remeber settings I give it (particularly with autoplay), there are ramdom focus errors relating to task switching which drive me insane, and it had cd burner incompatibility until sp2 even while the burner worked with 2k on the same machine (burner purchased early 2004)!
I also experience superior desktop responsiveness in 2k, it consistently beats xp by about 2% in pcmark 2002, and it uses 30 mb less ram.
inspiron 1100, maybe a year old, ready to throw the $^%& out the window, slow XP, memory hog, tooo intensive for a celeron
w2k, less than 30meg at idle uses the EXACT same drivers as XP so I have no idea why anyone would think that XP would somehow magically make the hardware work better.. fast to boot and seems to not drag so bad on the processor – not as great as linux but certainly better than XP
oh i like the “readonly” bug in XP freaks me out everytime
Oh and the disappearing status bar ….. too funny
Yeah Win2k was the best thing out of Microsoft
Not bloated like XP, not buggy like NT, just plain functional and fast…
I guess it’s downhill from now on…
But I couldnt be happier with GNU/Linux
exactly!
Opera 8 even runs on, believe it or not, my nec versa v/75 laptop that runs windows 95 on 12mb of ram on a 75mhz 486-sx
runs quite well too.
You asked about dual-core?…Win2k Pro should work, but it won’t be efficient. Heck, P4s with HT work on Win2k, but it can’t tell if the CPU is logical, etc. All it sees is a CPU or multiple CPUs.
For IE 7 not working on Win2k? That’s simply because its for WinXP and its features. (which are not found on older versions of Windows…So it requires XP specific features). I personally don’t care anymore.
As for leaving Windows? I’ve already done that.
FreeBSD is such a delight. (There’s a bit of reading to do, but it ain’t too bad.)…If I’m super-lazy, I switch to PC-BSD. (desktop variant of FreeBSD)…In dual-boot atm. (Also use VMware).
I don’t get it… I don’t want IE7!!!! I have Firefox and love it! I’m still running Win2k as I need it for development have no plan to go to XP. I’ll OS X before I go Linux as it can run most of the Linux stuff anyway. Windows is dieing… sit back and enjoy it like I am.
Has it occured to you that perhaps … using two completely different applications for your “benchmark” is inconclusive? Use WMP9 on both 2K and XP, then use Media Player Classic on both 2K and XP. Don’t mix-and-match.
As for the actual “performance issue” — it’s not a performance issue. It has to do with how often WMP9 sends the overlay frame a position update. Apparently Classic does it more often than WMP9. It hardly has to do with video rendering performance.
Please, get a clue.
I used media player classic on both OSs in all tests. I said nothing at all about WMP9. In fact I never use it. I admit I could have worded my post more clearly though.
A statement like “Please, get a clue”, from someone who is clearly labouring under a misapprehension, I regard as arrogant and rude. It could well prompt the reponse, “Please, get some manners”.
Now, how does the fact that I used the same player on both systems go with your frame position update theory? This is a genuine request for information/input.
I should also say that I tested Server 2003 as well, after performing the necessary system tweaks. It’s performance with video is the same as XP,s, though it’s hard disk scores in pcmark 2002 were very much higher. It seems 2k3 inherited soomething from the XP codeline.
(also, XPsp2’s harddisk scores were 10-15 percent worse than sp1’s)
I get the dissapearing status bar too. Also, explorer toolbars rearange themselves every few days making the “customize” option a joke (no its not fixed by fixing the bagmru limit in the registry either) in both XP and 2k3. XP also forgets that I have set it to autologon and seems even dumber than 2k in remembering explorer window positions.
I really hope these sorts of issues are fixed in future editions of windows.
It’s not “the final security patch”.
Security patches will be produced for Win2K until Extended Support expires, in 5 years’ time.
This is an update rollup to make it easy to get up to date on security patches, post SP4.
http://blogs.technet.com/tristank/archive/2005/05/31/SupportLifecyc…
Good to see some public pressure for better services brings some results.
Yes, windows 2000 performs not so efficiently on a dual logical cpus as xp. But in case of dual core there is no difference.
Sorry couldn’t reply faster.
My reason for the switch is not so much the financial aspect of the “support” issue because its their product and they could do whatever they please with it.Linux I could do whatever I please with it, indefinitely.It was kind of a wake up call.
See ?
Get a Clue?
STFU?
silly kids? (and trying to imply compiling kernels is a child’s activity?!)
kiddie trolls?
You’re not coming off very proffesional. Maybe you’re just a kid who hasn’t learned yet, but there’s little reason to be offensive. People who act this way are often regarded very poorly.
As far as the call home features of XP, do a fresh install of winXP without any service packs and not connected to the net. Install a full duplexing firewall, one that has decent logging and then connect to the net.
I have/had BSD, Linux, Amiga, OS9, Windows, OS/2 Warp, and DOS boxes. Only Windows XP calls out to a DNS server, whether is Window’s Help Center, Media Player (esp WMP 9 if you install it or SP2), svchost, etc..
I don’t know why that is? Frankly, I don’t care because I don’t use XP.
I will conceed, I’ve never decrypted or disected those packets to see what’s in them. Maybe it’s all innocent and everything? Why risk it when there is really nothing to be gained from upgrading 2000 to XP?
But if you need more than that, if empirical evidence is not enough for you, then:
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/wxpcallh.html
And if you care about this kind of stuff and want to control what’s going on, then:
http://www.xp-antispy.org/
What’s up with this thread?!
I’ve checked through it & there is so many “Comment is currently pending review”.
Who evere is Reporting abuse needs to lighten up a little… :/
then make a statement, state your opinion, heck troll away but dont personally attack someone or directly respond to somone in a hostile way….
I dont respond to anyone I just state whatever without directing it at anyone
Ahhh … I see. So XP checking for updates + updating the time is “calling home” suddenly. Right, and I suppose Linux distros doing the *exact same thing* is any different?
I am confused about how Microsoft is even able to offer an upgrade of Internet Explorer. I thought that Bill Gates himself testified, at the final hearings related to the antitrust trial, that IE was so tightly integrated into Windows that it would be impossible to separate them.
I haven’t checked into it personally but I think the whole calling home bit has somethign to do with the Windows Time service, which updates the time every so often, if it is then just turn the service off like I do. Also WMP9 checks for updates everytime you start it up, or when you come accross a file it needs codecs for it does a search. Again you can turn this off, along with automatic updates which checks for updates as well and so on and so on. None of this IMO is any big deal, other media players I have or even IM software checks for updates as well when you first start them up. I think lots of programs do it automatically at this point, or give you a manual option to do so.
About IE7 and Windows 2k, I think you won’t see it on 2k becasue of the security changes they made in XP SP2 which IE7 will build on. Since these haven’t been backported to 2k you can’t effectivly use IE7 in the same way.
Also about IE and Windows, the IE7 they will release for XP SP2 won’t be at all the same as the new IE version in longhorn since that to will use new and different systems that are in longhorn to make it more secure. I don’t even think the IE in longhorn will be IE7, it might be like IE7.5 or something. And it could even be writen in mostly .NET managed code. Only time will tell, I personally use Opera and IE from time to time.
“Ahhh … I see. So XP checking for updates + updating the time is “calling home” suddenly.”
Yes, and there was nothing sudden about it (nor am I exclusively talking just about these services, I was just giving an example). This is about control over your computer. If you don’t care then there isn’t a problem. If you do care, then there is a problem.
“Right, and I suppose Linux distros doing the *exact same thing* is any different?”
I don’t know of any distro that goes behind your back and does what WinXP does. Maybe you do, but I don’t. But this is also about trust and not too many organizations or individuals have MS’s reputation.
You can go to Slashdot and find an article about a German firm that decrypted the packets transmitted from the error reporting service and as MS claims, there wasn’t any directly personally identifying info included, but they also said that they might as well have included it for what was transmitted.
From what I’ve read, Longhorn is going to be way worse. If you need confirmation:
http://www.google.com
I’m sorry I involved you in this discussion, just so you know. It really has little value since I don’t use those products and you obviously feel the way you feel. It was such a minor thing, really only an example of why I feel 2k was one of MS’s best products.
Ummm Last i checked on XP when you do a local search for files on your hard drive your modem lights blink, and packets go to microsoft.. A local file search for files accessing the internet WHY???? How do you explain this TOM???
As for Microsoft checking and setting my time unknowingly at least i can disable that stoopid service, along with messenger and task scheduler and telnet and automatic updates and the rest of the kitchen sink turned on by default settings. I think win2K will have a very long shelf life.
Honestly, part of the problem with the Windows world is there is too many versions and to much stuff to support. They should focus on less, and do it well.
Ace asked whether 2K is compatible with the dual-core CPUs.
AFAIK, yes. OTOH, I’m sure MS won’t bother to give 2K 64-bit capabilities, so at such time as XP/Longhorn and Windows apps and drivers finally get the 64-bit bugs worked out, they should have an advantage. That’s not for a while yet, though, if various purchaser reviews of the XP 64-bit edition are any indication.
Something more relevant in the here and now (at least to those with megabucks to spend on video cards) is that I’ve read NVidia SLI will work on XP but not 2K.