MS: $4,000 for Daylight Saving Fix


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Customers using Microsoft products that have entered their "Extended" support phase will need to fork over $4,000 for a patch that makes the software compatible with the new March 11 date for Daylight Saving Time (DST), according to Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley.

Among the products affected that have left "Mainstream" support are Windows 2000, Exchange Server 2000 and Outlook 2000. Foley learned of the cost in a PowerPoint presentation distributed to analysts, which explains that due to the number of customers affected by the DST change, Microsoft will not be charging the standard, pricey fee to join its Extended Support Hotfix program. Instead, customers can simply purchase the DST hotfixes they need for a flat $4,000 USD fee.

http://www.betanews.com/article/MS_4000_fo..._Fix/1172689572

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Actually, of you think about it this is more affordable for most corporations that still use Windows 2000. Upgrading to newer OS's will probably cost them more.

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How can you defend a $4000 hotfix? Especially when its something as simple as a new DST. You're all out of your minds along with Microsoft.

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How can you defend a $4000 hotfix? Especially when its something as simple as a new DST. You're all out of your minds along with Microsoft.

Windows 2000 is a business-oriented OS. In other words it wasn't intended for Joe Blow, and if he can't afford the business-sized price for support than maybe it's time for a consumer OS (that will just have any and all patches disappear once it's past a certain point)

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Best legacy support of any OS......... You can bash M$ all you want, but there doing better then their competition.

Of any OS? Try Debian, you can still update your OS from 1996 to modern day with a few command line parameters ;)

As for 4,000$ - what about small businesses with say 25 employees that have a single Windows 2000 small business server and Exchange? 4k$ just so their mail won't go bonkers over it?

I know this is a "blind Microsoft fanboism" forum but jesus christ people, get a grip.

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This might sound like a stupid question. But for a small business wouldn't it just be cheaper to upgrade to a newer OS then since they don't need to pay for a ton of new Windows licenses?

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Of any OS? Try Debian, you can still update your OS from 1996 to modern day with a few command line parameters ;)

As for 4,000$ - what about small businesses with say 25 employees that have a single Windows 2000 small business server and Exchange? 4k$ just so their mail won't go bonkers over it?

I know this is a "blind Microsoft fanboism" forum but jesus christ people, get a grip.

No this is more like a Bash microsoft forum.

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This might sound like a stupid question. But for a small business wouldn't it just be cheaper to upgrade to a newer OS then since they don't need to pay for a ton of new Windows licenses?

I think that was the point of the pricing on this hotfix... it would take one senior programmer at microsoft less than an hr to change the lines of code related to the DST daylight savings dates if they are hard coded. I could see charging a reasonable amount for NT4 Server, but charging customers $4000 for Windows 2000 is just outrageous.

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Well I'd rather pay $4000 than the previous $40,000 cost. It's corporate support pricing people. This to companies would be seen as a bargain, not a rip off.

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Sounds good to me. No point in supporting legacy, just pulls you backwards.

Do you know that a lot of Non profits can't afford new systems with the enough power to run XP?

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I work for Siemens and I know here we bought the patch, but until we receive it, we just made our own. It works just as the MS one should. $4000 isn't really that big of a hit for unsupported software for a company.

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Of any OS? Try Debian, you can still update your OS from 1996 to modern day with a few command line parameters ;)

As for 4,000$ - what about small businesses with say 25 employees that have a single Windows 2000 small business server and Exchange? 4k$ just so their mail won't go bonkers over it?

I know this is a "blind Microsoft fanboism" forum but jesus christ people, get a grip.

I would say that that actually updates the OS (ie from 2000 to XP) Its a subtle nuance, but important to make the distinction for the sake of augment because unix is 'freeishy'. Moreover comparing the cost of a free operating system with the cost of an OS that you pay for is entirely unfair.

Do any commercial Unixes offer free updates from 8 years ago? No you have to buy the latest version of redhat/suse whatever.

Its not 'blind Microsoft fanboism', its countering blind M$ bashing. The truth is that Microsoft isn't as evil as people think it is.

Edited by lostspyder
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Does this include individuals running Windows 2000 or just corporations?

Individuals technically shouldn't be running 2000 as it was never designed as a consumer aimed OS.

Either way, I don't understand how people could get upset about this. The OS is 7 years old and it was clearly given a date after which it would no longer be supported. Microsoft actually gave up tons of profit in order to provide a more affordable means for corporations to obtain the necessary patch.

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