[Info-vax] [OT] Early 64-bit test build of Windows 2000 for Alpha found

[bill]

On 6/5/2023 12:28 PM, Bud Frede wrote:
> Simon Clubley <clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP> writes:
> 
>> Before NT was released for Alpha, Microsoft was doing early 64-bit
>> test builds with Windows 2000 on Alpha. One of those early 64-bit
>> experimental builds has now been discovered:
>>
>> https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/19/first_64bit_windows/
>>
>> and directly here:
>>
>> https://virtuallyfun.com/2023/05/15/windows-2000-64-bit-for-alpha-axp/
> 
> I had been a beta tester for Microsoft and tried the betas of Win 2K for
> Alpha. They more or less worked, but Red Hat Linux worked much better on
> that hardware (I think I had an Alphastation 200? IIRC, it was a 233MHz
> Alpha CPU.)
> 
> I'm sure I threw away those CDs long ago, even before I stopped using
> Windows.
> 
> 

We had Windows 2000 running on some Alphas at the University.
They all, eventually, moved to Linux or were just abandoned.
The reason.  Something that has been said about VMS here
numerous times.  No applications.  Users don't buy machines
because of the architecture or operating system.  They buy
it to get a job done and if they can't get the applications
to do that the system is worthless.  In this day and age where
less and less programming is being done in-house this is an
even more important issue.


bill