[WinPartners] Countdown to retiring Windows 2000 at MIT

[Jonathan McIndoe Hunt]

Date: Tuesday, 10 August 2004
To:  Members of the MIT Community: itpartners at mit.edu, winpartners at mit.edu, 
sw-release-announce at mit.edu, ed-tech at mit.edu
From: Software Release Team <swrt at mit.edu>
Subject: Countdown to retiring Windows 2000 at MIT
Cc: is&t at mit.edu, itag at mit.edu, it-lead at mit.edu


Good Afternoon:

We would like to take this opportunity to remind the Community that support 
for Windows 2000 will be retired on December 31st, 2004.  We anticipate 
this transition period to Windows XP Professional to occur throughout the 
Fall months.  This reminder is based on a series of communications and 
outreach while retiring an Operating System, which requires adequate 
planning, resources and lead time.  We are prepared to work with the MIT 
community in an effort to help ease the difficulties in migrating to a more 
current environment.

After an extensive review of industry trends, strategic plans for institute 
computing, and evolving security needs, we identified the following factors 
that led to the decision to retire support for Windows 2000:

   - Mainstream support from Microsoft will end on March 31, 2005
   - Windows XP became available in October of 2001
   - Retirement of this OS has been underway across the industry and we are 
in step with the vendors.
   - FY2005 Administrative Computing Desktop Environment Recommendations
   - All PC based computers sold since November 2001, have had Windows XP 
factory-set as the default operating system.
   - Windows XP licensed upgrades can be purchased through GovConnection 
<http://web.mit.edu/ecat/govconnection/>.

Keeping pace with current Operating Systems and applications benefits 
everyone. If you are running an aging operating system on equipment with 
sufficient specifications to run the latest operating system, then we will 
help you make the upgrade.  Any workstations targeted for replacement 
during the fiscal year need not be upgraded.  Whatever the nature of the 
assistance you require, please don't hesitate to contact us: Software 
Release Team, <swrt at mit.edu>. We will do our best to direct you to those 
who can best handle your specific needs.

Additional information to consider while making the transition to Windows 
XP is available: <http://web.mit.edu/ist/topics/windows/>.  These 
initiatives align with that goal, and we hope you take advantage of 
resources available to help you.

In closing, our thanks to all IT-Partners who assisted in reviewing vendor 
requirements necessary to set this operating system retirement and planning 
your department's upgrade strategies. Should you have any questions, send 
e-mail to the Software Release team <swrt at mit.edu>.  Please feel free to 
share this announcement with colleagues who may be interested.

Regards,
Jonathan Hunt on behalf of Deb Bowser
IS&T
Software Release Team