Accordingly, the third- party market, including a who's who of computing hardware and software, is lining up to proclaim support for Beta 3. On the other hand, users appear to be in far shorter supply. Likewise, Dell Computer Corp. is selling and supporting a full line of systems, from notebook to server, with Beta 3 preloaded. It also seems that every Windows NT ISV on the block has announced support for the OS in one form or another. Dozens of other third-party vendors have announced their support for the Beta 3 release of Windows 2000.
Some testers say the code has progressed well coming into the third beta.
Jeff Pulver, president of Intercomp Design Inc., a consulting firm and beta testing site for Windows 2000, Office 2000 and Windows 98 Second Edition, says this operating system appears to be in better shape than the first release versions of previous Microsoft operating systems he has beta tested. Several IT departments contacted by ENT confirm that their plans entail the installation of Beta 3 in test environments when it becomes available, but they will not deploy the final version into production environments before Jan. 1, 2000. Depending on success of testing, it may determine how fast we migrate after that. Likewise, the IT manager at a wholesale food distributor says the company will not even look at Windows 2000 until after January 1. When it comes to early deployment of Windows 2000, users and analysts have not forgotten that Microsoft has the weight of history against them.