Office Professional Microsoft Watch - Operating Sy

October eleven, 2003 12:00 PM
It is Official: No Longhorn Until 2006


At Microsoft's worldwide partner conference this week, Microsoft finally admitted that Longhorn will not begin to see the light of day until finally 2006.

This just isn't a guess on my component, educated or otherwise. Or flame bait. Or conjecture. This is directly from the horses' mouths.

At the present this week,Office Professional, a number of Microsoft execs casually slipped into their presentations that Longhorn is 3 many years far from debut. Final time I did the math, which was not 2005, as promised merely a handful of months back. Nor could it be even the wishy-washy "2005+" that several execs had taken to attaching to their product timetables. The new target is 2006, basic and simple.

Did the organization believe nobody would discover? Or perhaps in the end that Abita beer on draft served up on the Friday evening spouse social gathering in the Residence of Blues,Windows 7 Activation, that nobody could count?

Maybe Microsoft is assuming that tacking an additional year onto a product which is previously far from debut would not make any difference. But when Longhorn consumer is three decades away, that means the remainder with the Longhorn wave also is 3 decades from cresting.

That implies there is going to be no Visual Studio tools release for 2 many years right after "Whidbey" (which Microsoft is still insisting will be a late 2004 item). No Workplace 12 until finally 2006. And Longhorn Server — which was expected, until finally this week, in 2006 — is now,microsoft Office 2010 Activation, more likely than not a 2007 product (given that it was set to lag the consumer release by a year).

For some customers, a year delay actually might be a relief. Not everyone wants and needs major merchandise upgrades every two decades. And for Microsoft, which is in the midst of a major campaign to convince existing customers to upgrade to Windows XP and Workplace XP,Windows 7 Key, a delay may help fuel such a push.

But Microsoft has been talking to its partners about Longhorn since 2001,Microsoft Office Pro 2007, at least. (I wrote my first story on "Indigo," the Web services stack at the heart of Longhorn, two years back).


Check Out This First Stab at Defining Indigo From 2001

Each 12 months, we heard that more and more can't-live-without features would be baked into Longhorn. The ultimate in security (Next Generation Secure Computing Base, a k a "Palladium")? Longhorn. Self-healing/self-managing systems? The infrastructure will be baked into Longhorn. A simpler Windows-presentation infrastructure? Just hang on for Longhorn. The next version of Internet Explorer? Not available in any way other than as part of Longhorn.

Earlier this year, Microsoft execs proclaimed the business had decided against introducing a stop-gap interim Windows release between XP and Longhorn. That didn't look like a bad strategy when Longhorn customer was a 2004 merchandise. Even as a 2005 product, the idea of foregoing a "Shorthorn" wasn't outrageous. But now that it really is 2006? Five many years without a new desktop? That's a long time.

Even CEO Steve Ballmer seemingly is champing with the bit for a new release. In talking up XP Service Pack 2 — which Microsoft has delayed until finally Q2/Q3 of next 12 months in order to include a bunch of new security technologies in the SP — Ballmer called SP2 "a new version of Windows XP."

Read Ballmer's Full Companion Conference Keynote Speech Here

XP SP2: Service Pack or New Windows Release?

And More on What's New, From a Security Standpoint, in Service Pack 2

Indeed, Microsoft is planning to distribute XP SP2 quite broadly: through retail, OEMs, downloads and in other "creative ways." But the organization is maintaining SP2 is going to be free. (Possibly Microsoft could use XP SP2 as its "free software" poster child that it can pit against "free" open source software in its future TCO studies! I better not give them any ideas….)

Do you care that Longhorn is now a 2006 deliverable? Does yet yet another delay impact you in any way? If so, how?

Write me at mswatch@ziffdavis.com and let me know what you assume.

Microsoft is thought to allot XP SP2 quite generally: finished retail, OEMs, downloads and in different "generative distance." But the disposal is maintaining SP2 is feat to be unhampered.