The work that Microsoft has done to enhance scalability and reliability with the Datacenter edition of Windows 2000 will place the company in more direct competition with Sun and other UNIX players. We are cautiously optimistic that it will provide better scalability and stability than earlier versions of Windows, but the jury is still out on whether it can beat UNIX environments.

One of the best ways to gain a new appreciation of Windows 98 is to install Linux on the client side and try running it. Linux is mostly gaining mindshare and emotional share, not commercial market share.

Companies that have large population of notebook users and are experiencing pain with Windows 95 or 98 crashing are prime candidates for the adoption of Windows 2000, as are companies with a very chaotic environment that want to establish greater degree of lock down and control around the client.

You have to be allowed to grow. Find a way to reveal pain, people are happy. Find cost savings and a way to improve processes, allowing you to get support for these things.