MS Exchange to run on Win 2000 upgrade

Contrary to some reports, Microsoft says the next version of Exchange, code-named Titanium, will run on Windows 2000. However, the company does say that some features will need .Net Server.

Microsoft's next version of Exchange has been criticized for tying customers to .Net Server. This has created the idea that the software will not run on Windows 2000. That's not exactly true, said Microsoft, at its IT Forum here Tuesday. The forum, which is running at the same time as Comdex Fall 2002, has attracted European techies who could not afford to travel to Las Vegas.

"Do you think Microsoft would launch a product you could not upgrade to?" said a consultant at the conference. Confusion has arisen because the current version of the e-mail server, Exchange 2000, will not run on the next operating system version, Windows.Net Server, suggesting that perhaps customers cannot upgrade to .Net Server until Titanium ships in the middle of 2003.

In fact, the first servers to be upgraded to .Net Server should be those acting as Active Directory domain controllers, which will give the improvements to other servers on the networks. Exchange servers should not also be domain controllers, so there would be no value in upgrading them to .Net Server.

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