2004 deadline for NetWare

Netware, Windows 98 and Windows NT Workstation 4 all have four years' life left in them, but Windows 95 is viable only for another three years, warns analyst Gartner.

Users should set 2004 as the last year they use Windows NT4 Workstation and Windows 98. However, exactly how long they can be used depends on Microsoft's plans for Windows 2000's successors, Whistler and Blackcomb, according to Gartner research director Michael Silver.

"You will start to have a problem with Windows 95 by year-end 2003, and you will want to get off it," he told the analyst's European Symposium in Cannes last week.

Novell's NetWare looks safe to use until late 2004, and its users should not be in a hurry to migrate to Windows 2000 unless they are rolling out a major domain infrastructure based on Active Directory, or are relying heavily on Microsoft Exchange.

"If you are firmly in the NetWare camp there is little reason to move, and it would be difficult to cost justify it," said Silver. "Enterprises are spending four to five times more time in planning migrations than they did on NT 4."

Office 97 users should probably not upgrade to Office 2000, but should instead wait for Office 10, according to Silver. Most organisations "don't want to consider Exchange 2000 right now" because the roll out involves complications with directories, he added.

Gartner also confirmed that after implementing Service Pack 1, it is safe to roll out an Active Directory implementation for up to 7000 users.

First published in Computing