webmaster, and others, MCP (210) be consider outdated soon?

headcase

I am A+ and will soon be Net + certified. I figure my next step is the 70-210 exam. However, will Windows 2000 Professional soon be considered outdated? In other words will this certification be labeled as obsolete in the near future?

This may sound like a stupid question, but won't windows 2000 be replaced shortly? I know the compTIA certs are a life time cert, but Microsoft certs I don't know as much about, but don't they need updated over time to keep your cert?

Thanks for any help you can give.

RussS

Yes and no.

210 is still a valid certification and if you look at what is out there worldwide it will be a while before many companies upgrade from W2K to version 2003. In fact I know a few that will switch to Linux once there is no more support for W2K as they are not comfortable with 03. The other thing of course is that Server 03 is out in beta, but I have yet to see a desktop version sofar. Also take into account that MS has just launched MSCA/MSCE+Sec - I would be thinking that they will wait until quite a few of us have paid or bucks for that before asking us to upgrade to an 03 version ... lol

bellboy

where i work at the moment, we are using nt4 servers and win98 clients. we are expected to upgrade to win2k servers and xp clients by the end of the year, but i am sure there are many, and will remain so for several years yet, that will continue to use nt4 and windows 2000 servers and clients.

if you want to try to stay ahead of the game, yes, choose to take windows 2003 track instead, or start with 70-270 and decide afterwards (270 will work for both certification tracks), but i am intending to start the windows 2000 track, using my a+ and n+ as electives towards mcsa, possibly taking sql as my electives and maybe becoming mcdba and mcse at the same time.

the good news is, correct me if i am wrong, that there is no restrictions on the upgrade exams from the 2000 track to the 2003 track (with nt4 to windows 2000 upgrade you only had one shot).

Webmaster

No, it won't be replaced anytime soon, Windows 2000 will be used for many many years to come. There are also no plans to retire the 70-210 exam.
But:
- I would go for 70-270, for the simple reason there are so many MCP with 70-210 already, it might give you a headstart. Also if you know the 70-270 topics well, you also know 70-210 (which is not the case vice versa) But if you current (and perhaps future) employer uses 2000 pro you might be better of taking that one.
- (Russ:) Windows 2003 is no longer in beta, you can download an evalutation version, the last one before the final version is released. Windows XP is the client for Windows 2003. There most probably won't ever be a Windows 2003 client.
- (Russ:)

In fact I know a few that will switch to Linux once there is no more support for W2K as they are not comfortable with 03.

I really don't get that, it's not like Linux is an alternative for Windows 2003 in most corporate networks, except if you use Linux as a webserver or fire wall... I don't expect a single companies to consolidate their 7 Windows 2000 domains to 1 Linux domain , but then again... I don't see Linux as an alternative for anything, I would rather use MAC OS X I think, I don't miss the command line from the DOS days that much. Our host will soon support Windows 2003/.Net webservers, and I'm even thinking of migrating from Linux to Windows 2003. Although... the server TechExams.Net is running on has been up for 161 days in a row... try doing that with a MS machine
- (Bellboy:)

the good news is, correct me if i am wrong, that there is no restrictions on the upgrade exams from the 2000 track to the 2003 track (with nt4 to windows 2000 upgrade you only had one shot).

Yeah the 70-240 exam you could only take once, it was also free of charge...

Although MS might not retire the 2000 track anytime soon, I don't think we will actuall add much more 2000 material to the site (except 210 TechNotes and 218 perhaps) Our main focus will be on the 2003 track.