Wednesday, January 8, 2003
What Version of Windows Are You Syncing With?
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "THOUGHT" @ 09:00 AM
http://www.forbes.com/2003/01/07/cx_ld_0107upgrade.html
The computer industry may be ready for a big year in 2003. Microsoft will be dropping all support for Windows 98 and Windows NT 4, meaning corporations and users that want to at least continue to get some security fixes and be able to buy software they can use, they will have to move to Windows 2000 or Windows XP. (Some of you may be thinking, what about Windows ME, but I am trying to be serious here.) You can see on Microsoft's Windows Lifecycle page the various planned life spans of all Windows versions. Once a product enters "Non-Supported Phase" MS and many developers pretty much quit testing that OS for compatibility. I have a laundry list of Microsoft and non-Microsoft apps I've purchased over the last 18 months that didn't support Windows 95.
Which brings us to Pocket PCs. When Microsoft wrote ActiveSync 3.5, Windows 95 was entering the non-supported phase of its life cycle, and as a result, Microsoft didn't spend one minute even trying to make AS 3.5 work. With limited resources, the Mobile Device group has to prioritize, and supporting an OS that parent Microsoft is in the process of killing is wasted effort. At some point, there will be an ActiveSync 3.7 or 4.0 or whatever they call it. With Windows 98 and NT 4 entering this non-supported phase, do you think the Mobile Device group will spend any effort supporting it? It may work, but if it doesn't, I'd imagine there will be a shrug, someone will say "oh well" and move on. :D I can't really blame them. If MS fixed the top 10 issues I have with ActiveSync today, Windows 95 compatibility would be number 48 or so. I'll actually be glad to see all of the OS's with 16 bit code die. Think how much time they will waste on Windows ME compatibility. Yuck. You wouldn't believe how much code in Office XP installs depending on a Win9x based OS or a WinNT based OS.
I'm curious, what OS are you syncing your Pocket PC with? Will you move from Windows 98 to Windows XP if the next generation iPAQ/Axim/Whatever doesn't support your OS?
The computer industry may be ready for a big year in 2003. Microsoft will be dropping all support for Windows 98 and Windows NT 4, meaning corporations and users that want to at least continue to get some security fixes and be able to buy software they can use, they will have to move to Windows 2000 or Windows XP. (Some of you may be thinking, what about Windows ME, but I am trying to be serious here.) You can see on Microsoft's Windows Lifecycle page the various planned life spans of all Windows versions. Once a product enters "Non-Supported Phase" MS and many developers pretty much quit testing that OS for compatibility. I have a laundry list of Microsoft and non-Microsoft apps I've purchased over the last 18 months that didn't support Windows 95.
Which brings us to Pocket PCs. When Microsoft wrote ActiveSync 3.5, Windows 95 was entering the non-supported phase of its life cycle, and as a result, Microsoft didn't spend one minute even trying to make AS 3.5 work. With limited resources, the Mobile Device group has to prioritize, and supporting an OS that parent Microsoft is in the process of killing is wasted effort. At some point, there will be an ActiveSync 3.7 or 4.0 or whatever they call it. With Windows 98 and NT 4 entering this non-supported phase, do you think the Mobile Device group will spend any effort supporting it? It may work, but if it doesn't, I'd imagine there will be a shrug, someone will say "oh well" and move on. :D I can't really blame them. If MS fixed the top 10 issues I have with ActiveSync today, Windows 95 compatibility would be number 48 or so. I'll actually be glad to see all of the OS's with 16 bit code die. Think how much time they will waste on Windows ME compatibility. Yuck. You wouldn't believe how much code in Office XP installs depending on a Win9x based OS or a WinNT based OS.
I'm curious, what OS are you syncing your Pocket PC with? Will you move from Windows 98 to Windows XP if the next generation iPAQ/Axim/Whatever doesn't support your OS?
