y2k boom time for PC suppliers?

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

In theory with all the non-compliant PCs about this should be a boom time for Compaq, Dell etc to keep up with the demand for replacement. Have any of your companies/organisations made wholescale purchases of new kit recently. FI have a policy of replacing PCs on a regular basis, consequently most are compliant. Yes they have all been tested, both the servers and the clients.

-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), October 20, 1998

Answers

I'll bet their real-time clocks aren't compliant -- which SOME applications do depend on to get time info! See the recent article "Dell, Compaq clean their clocks" at http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,27610,00.html. Which, of course, also brings up the whole issue of APPLICATIONS per se, which many people never even think of, just the BIOS and OS. Ahhh, but that is another story....

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.net), October 20, 1998.

Most PC's (Pentium's) can be fixed in place with no need to replace. Second, The RTC/BIOS issue is still largely unknown or not believable to many companys. They think its a sales ploy! Hope the recent announcement by Digital/Compaq helps break the ice.

-- R. D..Herring (drherr@erols.com), October 20, 1998.

Richard:

No mass purchases at my office. We have mostly Pentiums which are OK or can be fixed. Have no evidence of this happening anywhere else either. I've heard of no real boom in the PC business, but will certainly be watching. I agree with R.D. - awareness at the PC level is low.

-- Mike (gartner@execpc.com), October 21, 1998.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ