According to recent research by the NOP 77% of firms are still using Windows NT, and only 18% are using it as the principal OS. These firms are showing no immediate plans to switch over to Windows Sever 2003. According to these firms NT still offers the stability they need. In addition all of their IT professionals can only support NT Server, and not Server 20003 (which is a dramatic improvement over the old one). The main reason of course is cost. Most of these firms are still running old computers, and if the OS still offers what they need why upgrade.
A lot has been written about Microsoft's strategy to force IT managers to abandon the long-serving Windows NT operating system in favour of Windows Server 2003. However, though the software giant is keen to move customers to Windows 2003 and the lucrative support contracts that go with it, many firms are in no hurry to shift.
Recent research by NOP found that up to 77 percent of firms of all sizes were still using Windows NT within their IT infrastructure, although only 18 percent were using it as the principal operating system. Of course, the phenomenon of vendors forcing customers to spend on the latest products by stopping support for older ones is neither a new development or one confined to Microsoft. Most software vendors actually depend on it, otherwise they would only every write one version of any application and would depend more heavily on revenue from support contracts for the products already shipped.
News source: vnunet.com
