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50 Windows 2000 Lab System Upgrade: Good Idea, Bad Idea?
Jesse
Ballard, University of Wyoming
Jim Osborn, University of Wyoming
Which is better:
Switching to the newest products available so that users have the best
tools available or saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”; and sticking with
what you have for a while? Staying on
the cutting edge of technology is an issue for any institution of higher
learning. After considering this and
many other factors, including some of the new administrative features offered
in Windows 2000, the University of Wyoming decided to upgrade its student lab
system from NT 4.0 to Windows 2000.
This change should be completed by the end of August.
We will detail the planning and preparation that went
into this project and the numerous issues we faced. Some of the planning topics that we will discuss are:
Hardware requirements and the need to upgrade machines
Software testing and the need to find updated versions, or replace
legacy programs
Political ramifications of such a campus-wide upgrade
Developing a workable time-line for the upgrade process
Determining the man-power needed to implement the change
In addition to explaining the planning process of the upgrade, we will also discuss some of the problems and issues we encountered during the first stages of implementation.
Keywords: Windows 2000, upgrade, lab system, operating systems