< 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)