NEWS FLASH: Microsoft Will Ship Pared Down Longhorn in 2006

QUOTE FROM Paul Thurrott

Microsoft contacted me this afternoon to inform me that the company will ship Longhorn, its next major Windows update, in 2006 as previously planned. And while the company hasn't offered many specific details about how it would meet this suddenly aggressive ship date, one major feature, WinFS, will not be included in Longhorn as planned, and two others, Avalon and Indigo, will also ship separately for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Thus, the Longhorn we're getting in 2006 won't be as full featured as we had originally expected. Houston, I think we have a problem.



"With the shipment of Windows XP Service Pack 2 this month, Microsoft is now finalizing plans for how and when to deliver Longhorn," a Microsoft representative told me. "As a result, the company announced today it is now targeting 2006 for Longhorn to be broadly available. Longhorn will deliver major improvements in user productivity, important new capabilities for software developers and significant enhancements in security, deployment and reliability."



"Microsoft ... will release the new Windows storage sub-system, codenamed WinFS, after the Longhorn release," I was told today. "WinFS is expected to be in beta when the Longhorn client becomes available. The Windows WinFX developer technologies, including the new presentation subsystem codenamed Avalon and the new communication subsystem code-named Indigo, will be made available for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 in 2006. As for Longhorn server, that is still expected to be available in 2007."



Obviously, this change marks a major departure for the software giant, which had previously pledged to make Longhorn its most impressive Windows update ever. However, since announcing these early, lofty goals, the software giant has been steadily missing deadlines and restarting Longhorn-related projects. Just this month, for example, the core Windows team gave up on its plan to componentized the Windows Server-based Longhorn source code and literally started over from scratch using the Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) code base. That change alone would have delayed Longhorn for several months had the company tried to continue its original rollout plans.


http://www.winnetmag.com/Article/ArticleID/43785/43785.html



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------