A lot of people on here and elsewhere are playing armchair quarter back. The "See I knew nothing would happen" is strong here. The truth is no one knew for sure what would happen and if and when it did go South everyone would be an instant critic and say "Why were you not prepared for that".
You can't win either way.
As a foreman for an Electrical Substation equipped with Microprocessor relays I was in charge during Y2K. We had run simulations by moving the date ahead on some test relays and allowed them to roll over to Jan 1, 2000 and nothing happened.
That being said the manufacturers of the microchips for the protective relays had made no provision for the date rollover and didn't know themselves with 100% confidence exactly what would happen so they were really of no help. Every breaker in the Substation could have tripped and stayed off line. That was a distinct possibility.
The real problem was the imbeded instructions that were hardwired into the microchip so it was way more that just a possible software glitch. Manufacturers like G.E. and Siemens had never taken into account that at the end of the decade all 4 year digits would (or not) change.
People who scoff at the preparations before Y2K have no idea what they're talking about. They were not there on the technical end and have no appreciation of what could have happened. The fact nothing happened was due more to happy coincidence than precise planning. We got lucky and people in the technical end know that.
I look at the cost of Y2K preparations as necessary insurance. We didn't need it "Thank God" but were extremely glad it was there.
