>What is Win2K ? Also, can you point me to material on DCOM so
>that I can read about it and understand it.
>

Win2K is MS Windows 2000, released in various flavors for final beta several weeks ago. It's the eventual logical successor to Windows NT, and eventually will merge with Windows 98, at which point, the operating system bases for both home and business environment would be merged to a single code base. Win2K will replace NT 4.0 as the Microsoft's business workstation and server platform within the year; the merge with Win98 is not going to happen as quickly. Win9x, whose roots are still back in Win3.x/DOS, seems to have a life like a dandilion; every time it's imminent death is announced, it reappears because you didn't kill off the roots well enough.

Win2K incorportates some of the better features from Win9x like PnP support, APM, FAT32 and the common device driver model, and lots of new stuff. There is a ton of new stuff of its own, too. expect lots of new concepts you'll have to pick up for the environment.

DCOM is Distributed COM - the Component Object Modal letting things written in different languages share common, runtime-resolvable interfaces that can be deployed in a number of ways. DCOM is tyhe basis for using COM for intermachine service provision. A good place to start reading about it is Microsoft's Web Site. A good starting point is

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/backgrnd/html/msdn_dcomarch.htm