Pocket 2000: Product Compliance

This page gives links to information:

• stored in openly accessible repositories
• provided by suppliers (hardware, software and telecomms) about their Year 2000 compliance and strategies

See elsewhere for information:

• from Year 2000 consultancy and solutions companies
• and some odds and ends, such as code scanners or proposed fixes

Repository sites for compliance information

• Defense Information Systems Agency (US)

This catalogue of vendor information with links to Y2K information on vendors' own sites wherever possible. A prime source of information. Hosted by Mitre's Year 2000 service (12 Dec 96)
• Social Services Administration (US)

Index by name of a long list of products, produced by a workgroup sponsored by the Government Information Technology Executive Council (GITEC). Incomplete information, though (27 Feb 97)
• Infoliant's Network Advisor provides a database covering over 38,000 products BUT it is not free (24 Aug 99)

Vendors' own information

Hardware (including hadware vendors' software)

• Apple Computer provide a Y2K index. Later 68k-based computers and all Power Macs are fully Year 2000 compliant. Earlier ones survive across the century but need fixing when the 32-bit date register overflows in 2040. Applications software which makes proper use of the Mac Toolbox should be compliant (but not all of it does); user-written programs and data have the same  problems as anywhere else, possibly exacerbated where older versions of software are still in use, where releases are later for the Mac than for other platforms, or where software vendor support is limited (2 Jul 98, updated 20 Oct 98)
• Computer Associates provide an index to Year 2000 date support in CA products. The product directory is available for download. (sorry, forgot to date this one)
• Cisco issued a preliminary bulletin, in which they evaluated all Cisco products as compliant. Many customers asked for a more rigorous test plan: the results, together with Cisco's compliance statement, can be found at their extensive Year 2000 home page. Colour coding of compliance levels makes this one of the best vendors' charts I've seen. Thanks to Cisco for this information (9 Dec 96, updated 6 Nov 97)
• Compaq Online gives details of Compaq Servers Year 2000 Support (29 Aug 96)
• Hewlett Packard provide a full Year 2000 repository (3 Nov 97) including information on their handheld calculators (23 Oct 98)
• IBM has a substantial Year 2000 resource; look here for the gateway to product information. Visit the Year 2000 Technical Support Center forhelp, advice, and information to customers about application redevelopment. IBM is also a major Year 2000 solutions provider and resources online include a training course "Year 2000 Transition: A Business Challenge" (13 Dec 96/14 Oct 97/15 Mar 98)
• ICL provide a Year 2000 Product Conformance Database (9 Dec 96)
• Intel provide general and product-related Y2K information(15 Mar 98)
• Iomega (makers of Zip and Ditto storage devices) provide a Statement of Compliance (28 Jul 98)
• Siemens (Germany) provide a Year 2000 Technical Service with information on their products; general information to assist; and a "Competence Center 2000". In English (28 Jul 98)
• Sun Microsystems: All Unix systems survive till 2038. Sun have a substantial Web site Synchronizing your Enterprise for general issues and their products (date omitted, mid 1997)
• Tektronix provide Year 2000 information and operate a Compliance Centre with the offer of email notification of new developments. Some of the Tektronix site is in German or a mixture of German and English (29 May 98)

Software

• Adobe: information on Year 2000 Product Support (5 Aug 97)
• Apple Computer also give Y2K information for their software (28 Dec 99)
• BSDI reports that all known potential problems in BSD/OS (aka BSD Unix) have been fixed prior to current releases (23 Oct 98)
• Citrix offer full information on Winframe compliance (7 Oct 97)
• Compuware have a substantial Year 2000 website with data on their products (Uniface etc), as well as some tools and more general Y2K information (15 Mar 98)
• DR-DOS may be a viable alternative to MS-DOS to help 286- and 386-based PCs survive (20 Jul 98: thanks to Mike Kusmirak of CompInfo)
• Lotus year 2000 information is provided from the Lotus UK website (27 Sep 97)
• Netscape product information - Netscape also host a Y2K repository (18 Jul 99)
• Oracle provide Year 2000 information including white papers, resources and EasiPath migration tools (29 May 98)
• Microsoft have finally launched a full Year 2000 Resource Centre following pressure from some of their major accounts. This has detailed compliance information for MS products, and also information for software developers (24 Apr 98)

This level of information is most welcome and there are some major issues. However, in my opinion, Microsoft have been correct to claim that the issues most likely to be encountered are with software built using MS desktop tools. In particular, MS Office products permit century to be defaulted at data input, and different products have different windows. This applies both to components at the same release level (e.g. Excel vs. Access) and to the same product in different versions (Excel 95 vs. Excel 97).
Other Microsoft material includes
• The Year 2000 Issue: Is Your Enterprise Ready? An early, rather simplistic guide intended for CIOs; contains the table of MS products and impact dates (27 Feb 97)
• Novell have established a Year 2000 website with product readiness tables, year 2000 patches and other resources (15 Mar 98)
• Rational Software products are Year 2000 Compliant (6 May 98)
• Qualcomm provide a brief Year 2000 statement for Eudora mail and Internet software. Products will survive 2000, but new versions will need to be acquired before 32-bit date expiry in 2038 (8 Jun 98)
• Symantec post a Y2K warranty statement: for the UK, and for the US. For other countries, track from Symantec's worldwide home page. We haven't checked them all! (27 Jul 98)

Telecomms

• Ericsson post Y2K information on their mobile phones, network components and other products (5 Oct 99)