MSDN relents: Millennium and NT 4.0 heads to subscribers!

Thanks to the efforts of hundreds of readers that wrote or called to complain about the Microsoft Developer Network's (MSDN) decision to not ship Windows Millennium Edition ("Windows Me") to its subscribers, MSDN has reversed course, announcing that its Professional and Universal subscribers will get both the Beta 3 and RTM versions of Millennium OS later this year. And while existing MSDN subscribers will continue to rely on their old NT 4.0 disks, new subscribers will actually receive NT 4.0 on CD in a "welcome kit" when they join the program. Microsoft contacted me Friday to apologize about any misleading information I received during my conversation with MSDN support personnel. However, it's clear that the decision to provide both of these operating systems, by default, has actually changed since I wrote the original article.

So we did it. Congratulations.

"Millennium will be available after the release of Beta 3," I was told. "Moving forward, Windows NT 4.0 will be included in the MSDN subscription Services Welcome Kits for new subscribers and will continue to be an integral part of MSDN Subscription Services shipments until Microsoft is confident that customers no longer require its delivery, as a normal part of their media fulfillment. For existing customers that have already received Windows NT 4.0, MSDN will continue to support Windows NT 4.0 through normal shipments as it has always done in the past."

For more information on the shipments that MSDN Universal and Professional subscribers can expect in the coming months, please visit the MSDN Web site.

And thanks, once again, to all of you. It's not often that we can have such a positive effect on things generally beyond our control. This was one such time.

--Pau