Win2000 users prepare for Extended Support
The latest post on IEBlog (Microsoft Internet Explorer Weblog) regretfully informs Win2000 users that they’ll have to move on in order to get new Internet Explorer goodies.
Microsoft has arranged to cut the power on Windows 2000 support after 2010, but the development team behind Internet Explorer is preparing the grave already. The three-strike knockout came last Friday in a “we regret to inform you” post on IEBlog that left many owners shaking their fists at the Redmond-based software pioneer.
Strike #1 was against SP3 users that are still operating with either IE 5.01 SP3 or IE 6 SP1. Due to the fact that Internet Explorer is about to enter Extended Support (read Strike #2), these users must upgrade to Windows 2000 SP4 if they wish to continue receiving future updates for IE.
Strike #2 was nothing less than an eye-opener for the folks that haven’t been paying attention to their calendars. Beginning July 1, 2005, Windows 2000 will enter the Extended Support phase until the end of 2010. Once this occurs, users will no longer have the privilege of asking for warranty support, design changes, or new features. Microsoft has more details on the Extended Warranty phase on the Support Lifecycle homepage.
To top off the cake, Strike #3 put to rest any chance of IE7 coming to Windows 2000 thanks to the browser’s dependency on key parts of XP SP2 and the Windows 2000 Lifecycle roadmap. In other words, IE7 is “non-trivial to port back to Windows 2000.”
Aside from the rather upsetting news for Windows 2000 owners, IEBlog has more information on tabbed browsing, recent compatibility issues with Netscape 8, and everything else Internet Explorer related.
