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Fred Langa is a senior consulting editor and columnist for Windows Magazine. Fred's free weekly newsletter is available via subscribe@langa.com. You can contact him at fred@langa.com or via his website at http://www.langa.com.

Is There Any Excuse Not To Be Ready For Y2K?

By Fred Langa

You can't escape the year 2000 buzz. For example, a simple search on "yk2" in the InformationWeek archives turns up almost 200 hits.

Y2K is out in daily life, too. I was at a holiday party last week and got buttonholed by a member of Congress who wanted to know "all about Y2K." The congresswoman's question was simplistic, of course, but her concern was real: She worries that there might be so many simultaneous small enterprise failures that it would become an economic hardship for society as a whole.

A few days later, I was interviewed for background by the San Jose Mercury News; the paper was preparing a general-circulation Sunday supplement piece on Y2K and wanted to pick my brains because of a year 2000 feature article I wrote for InformationWeek's sister publication, Windows Magazine. (The article is available here) The WinMag story that prompted the interview might be of use to many InformationWeek readers. It contains what is perhaps the most thorough test procedure ever published to verify a Windows-based PC's Y2K compliance. It also has pointers to a ton of additional Y2K information.

But despite all the information out there, an amazing number of people are still in the dark. For example, far too many users of Microsoft's operating systems don't know that every version of Windows -- 3.x, 9x, CE, and NT -- has Y2K bugs. Most require a patch or Hot Fix to remedy them, but some either can't or simply won't be fixed. (See http://www.microsoft.com/technet/topics/year2k/default.htm.) In fact, there are enough Y2K problems in Microsoft's offerings that it has spawned a joke: Microsoft (so goes the joke) announced that the ship date for the final Y2K patches for all of its software has slipped; they'll be delivered early in the first quarter of 1900.

I confess I'm beginning to take a very Darwinian view on Y2K. The harsh way of saying this is simply: Any business with its head in the sand about Y2K probably deserves whatever it gets. What possible excuse for inaction can there be? What possible rationale for delay is there?

What's your take? Am I being too harsh? (The congresswoman thought I was.) Have you and your business checked out your most important hardware and software? Are your prime suppliers taking care of their own Y2K business? Do you fully expect the lights to be lit and the world turning as usual on Jan. 1, 2000 -- or do you think there's a real risk of TEOTWAWKI ("The End Of the World As We Know It")? Join in!

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