Compaq: Windows 2000 not returning to Alpha platform

Over the past 24 hours, I've heard from a variety of people in and around Compaq that rumors of a new version of Windows 2000 running on the Alpha platform are greatly exaggerated. But the people I really needed to hear from continue to be curiously silent, despite repeated phone messages and emails. However, based on some internal email that was recently forwarded to me, I feel compelled to at least report that Compaq is telling its own people that the story is unfounded.

According to a message sent yesterday, Windows 2000 "on Alpha is dead, the body is embalmed and buried. [Microsoft] is no longer doing Alpha builds. All development has shifted to IA64 [Intel's 64-bit Itanium]. There is no interest at [Microsoft] in revisiting that decision and likewise no interest in [Compaq] in doing any further [Windows 2000] development related to Alpha."

Terry Shannon of the excellent "Shannon Knows Compaq" newsletter also confirmed that the Windows 2000 on Alpha initiative is long dead. "Very good sources within Compaq vehemently deny that the decision to kill Win64 on Alpha has been reversed," Shannon said. "Separately, I've heard that Microsoft is getting rid of its Alpha hardware ... Compaq did toy with the idea of resurrecting the port earlier this year, but the target would have been high-end (Wildfire) only. As for Alpha momentum, it's accelerating, not decelerating.