<
operating system> (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
web sites.
- 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.
Home.
Usenet newsgroups:
news:microsoft.public.windows2000,
news:comp.os.ms-windows.
(2002-01-28)
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