Originally posted by
feldon29:
I'm praying that the source code to Windows 2000 and maybe XP leaks to the public so people can continue to write security updates for it after Microsoft abandons them.
I read somewhere that 50% of corporate america still runs Windows 2000, which many say is more stable and secure than windows XP. The coming of Office 12, which requires windows XP, is forcing a great many companies to seriously look to Linux and open source office solutions to avoid the huge costs of migrating both windows 2000 and office xxx.
In the case of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, the cost of a migration to office 12 is, by the state's own estimates, is about $50Million while a transition to solutions that are based on the open standard called OpenDocument will be only $5Million, a factor of 10 less!
Office solutions that support OpenDocument today run on all platforms, so they can keep their windows 2000 systems. And when windows 2000 unsupportable, Massachusetts can pick an alternative OS and upgrade their hardware as necessary, even while maintaining a compatible application suite. Because there are several open source office suites to choose from, the state is free to choose the one best suited for them.
And of course of they choose Linux and one of the free open source office suites (OpenOffice and KOffice are among them) then the whole solution is open source.
So why pray for an illegally maintained windows 2000 product and risk a lobby full of Microsoft's lawyers when you can go with open standards and open source at lower cost?
The commonwealth of Massachusetts is most wise! We can all learn from their example.
- john