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Windows 2000 Also called "Win2K" and "W2K," Windows 2000 was a major upgrade to Windows NT 4, launched in early 2000. Available in one client and three server versions, Windows 2000 added support for Plug and Play. It used the same interface as Windows 95/98, but added considerably more features, dialogs and options.
From NT Domains to Active Directory
Windows 2000 supported Active Directory, which replaced NT's domain system and made network administration simpler. This was a major redesign of the directory structure for companies. More stable than NT, Win 2000 was designed to eliminate erroneous replacement of DLLs when applications were installed (see DLL hell).
Versions
Windows 2000 Advanced Server was similar to Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition, which supported clustering and automatic failover in the event of a system failure. Windows 2000 DataCenter Server supported more advanced clustering and was the top server offering. Windows 2000 Professional was the client version. See Windows, Windows Server 2003, Windows NT, Windows XP, Active Directory and Plug and Play.
Windows 2000 SMP
Version Use Support RAM
Professional Client 2GB
Server Server 4-way 2GB
Advanced Server* Server 8-way 8GB
DataCenter Server* Server 32-way 64GB
*Supports clustering, failover and load balancing
| (operating system) | Windows 2000 - (Win2k, W2k, NT5, Windows NT 5.0) An
operating system developed by Microsoft Corporation for
PCs and servers, as the successor to Windows NT 4.0.
Early beta versions were referred to as "Windows NT 5.0".
Windows 2000 was officially released on 2000-02-17.
Windows 2000 is most commonly used on Intel x86 and
Pentium processors, with a DEC Alpha version rumoured.
Unlike Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 is not available for
PowerPC or MIPS.
Windows 2000's user interface is very similar to Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0 with integrated Internet Explorer, or
to Windows 98.
It is available in four flavours:
- Professional: the client version, meant for desktop
workstations, successor to Windows NT Workstation.
- Server: "entry-level" server, designed for small
deployments, and departmental file, print, or intranet
servers.
- Advanced Server: high throughput, larger scale servers
and applications, and small to medium scale websites.
- Data Center Server: software for large-scale server
clusters (in development as of 2000-03-14).
New features in Windows 2000 include:
- Active Directory.
- Greatly improved built-in security mechanisms, including
Kerberos-based authentication, public key support, an
encrypting file system, and IPsec support.
- Integrated web browser - Internet Explorer 5.0.
- Integrated web server - IIS 5.0
- Terminal services for displaying application interfaces on
remote computers (similar to X-Windows).
- File protection that prevents user programs from
accidentally deleting or overwriting critical system files.
- Improved hardware support, including Plug-and-Play, DVD,
IEEE-1394 (FireWire), USB, infra-red, PCMCIA, ACPI,
laptop computers.
- Improved user interface, including a single point to control
the entire system.
- Improved management tools, including remote administration.
Minimum system requirements, according to Microsoft, are
Pentium-133 MHz CPU, 64 MB RAM, 650 MB of hard disk space. These are for W2K Professional, others require
more.
Many operating systems compete with Windows 2000, including
the Apple MacOS, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD,
Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, Hewlett-Packard HP-UX, SGI
Irix. Novell's NDS also provides a service similar to
Active Directory.
Windows 2000 will be followed by Windows XP Professional and
Windows 2002.
http://microsoft.com/windows2000/.
Usenet newsgroups: news:microsoft.public.windows2000,
news:comp.os.ms-windows. | |
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