According to AssetMetrix Research

Jun 14, 2005 18:29 GMT  ·  By

Although it is five years old and there are already better OSs, a recent study conducted by researchers from AssetMetrix Research Labs found out that Windows 2000 is the main operating system for many enterprises.

Microsoft is considering to end its support for Windows 2000 at the end of this month, but it seem to be a mistake, because AssetMetrix Reasearch has discovered that almost half of PCs in large corporations are still running that OS.

Another key fact of the report released on Tuesday, by the research division of AssetMetrix was that Windows 2000 remains a widely deployed operating system, losing just 4 percent since the fourth quarter of 2003.

Windows XP, it successor, rose in popularity from 6.6 per cent to 38 per cent during that time. The older Windows operating systems - Windows 95 and Windows 98 - are still in use, but collectively account for less than 5 per cent of corporate computer systems, down from 28 per cent two years ago.

"The findings of this study suggest that Windows 2000 still plays an important part in many IT environments, with organizations often choosing Windows XP to replace Windows 98 and Windows 95," AssetMetrix Research Labs' managing director Steve O'Halloran said in a statement

According to O'Halloran there are three key factors that led corporations to still use Windows 2000. O'Halloran said that Windows 2000 was designed to be manageable and supportable by IT and its not having some security problems as Windows XP. The third factor is the 2002 recession, that made companies believe that a computers can last longer that three years.