SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 17, 2000 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the general availability of the Windows® 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Server and Windows 2000 Advanced Server operating systems. Beginning today, Microsoft® Windows 2000 is broadly available in over 60 countries and 16 languages, including English, German, Japanese (two versions), French, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Dutch, Korean, and Brazilian Portuguese. The Windows 2000 family of operating systems is designed to enable a new generation of PC computing, delivering superior levels of reliability and manageability to help increase system uptime and lower the total cost of ownership. Windows 2000 is the ideal platform for doing business on the Internet and takes advantage of state-of-the-art hardware, from the smallest mobile devices to the largest e-commerce servers.
“Microsoft is proud that Windows 2000 is now broadly available around the world. We know that Windows 2000 will improve business operations tremendously for customers around the globe,”
said Steve Ballmer, president and CEO of Microsoft.
“The next generation of computing begins today, with the launch of Windows 2000.”
Windows 2000 is available immediately from a variety of PC manufacturers, retail outlets, technology providers and consultants. In addition, more than 290,000 individual channel partners are skilled and trained to provide Windows 2000-based solutions today, including 183,000 technology providers, 33,000 systems builders, 22,000 Microsoft Certified Solution Providers, 16,000 ISVs and IHVs, 16,000 retail representatives and 1,500 global systems integrators. Companies offering deployment services for Windows 2000 can be found at http://mcspreferral.microsoft.com/ .
“BUY.com currently features a special Microsoft store on our software site that provides answers to questions about Windows 2000. We are excited to be able to offer this information as well as preorder capabilities,”
said Michael Walkey, vice president of Product Management at BUY.com.
“With this preorder offering, our customers will be one of the first to receive this new technology immediately following the availability date of Feb. 17, 2000.”
“We are pleased to be offering the newest Windows NT® platform, Windows 2000 Professional, which will be available in our stores Thursday, Feb. 17,”
said Larry Mondry, executive vice president of merchandising for CompUSA.
“Our business customers have been anticipating the arrival of this product for over a year, and we expect an enthusiastic response.”
“After seeing the beta version of Windows 2000 in action, we think Microsoft has a winner,”
said Jeffrey Morris, software buyer for Micro Center.
“We anticipate strong demand for this product from the small-business community.”
Worldwide Availability
Windows 2000 was designed for a worldwide audience. Beyond the languages already available today, within the next 60 days, Windows 2000 will be available even more broadly with 14 additional language versions: Chinese (traditional and simplified), Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Czech, Polish, Hungarian, Russian, Portuguese-Iberian, Greek, Turkish, Arabic and Hebrew.
The Windows 2000 family consists of four products: Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Windows 2000 Datacenter Server. Windows 2000 Professional is the desktop and laptop operating system for businesses of all sizes. Windows 2000 Server is the next-generation, multipurpose network operating system for departmental file and print, Web and entry-level application servers. Windows 2000 Advanced Server is the server operating system for business-critical Web and line-of-business, mission-critical application servers. Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, the server operating system for the most demanding levels of availability and scale, is expected to be available 120 days from today.
About Windows 2000
Windows 2000 is an ideal platform for the next generation of business computing and addresses the full range of customers’ computing needs, from laptops and desktops to high-end clustered servers. The operating system helps organizations Internet-enable their business with a reliable, manageable infrastructure that is optimized for existing and emerging hardware. More information about Windows 2000 is available at http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/ and http://www.microsoft.com/technet/ .
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software – any time, any place and on any device.
Microsoft, Windows and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
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