Microsoft Office 2007 Key Microsoft Watch - Operat

October eleven,Windows 7 Professional, 2003 twelve:00 PM
It's Official: No Longhorn Until 2006


At Microsoft's throughout the world companion conference this week, Microsoft last but not least admitted that Longhorn will not likely begin to see the mild of day until finally 2006.

This is not a guess on my component, educated or otherwise. Or flame bait. Or conjecture. This is straight from your horses' mouths.

At the display this week, several Microsoft execs casually slipped into their presentations that Longhorn is three decades faraway from debut. Final time I did the math, that was not 2005, as promised merely a couple of months ago. Nor could it be even the wishy-washy "2005+" that several execs had taken to attaching to their item timetables. The new target is 2006, plain and simple.

Did the business believe nobody would recognize? Or possibly after all that Abita beer on draft served up on the Friday night partner celebration with the Home of Blues,Microsoft Office 2007 Key, that no one could count?

Maybe Microsoft is assuming that tacking one more yr onto a item that's currently far from debut would not make any difference. But when Longhorn customer is 3 a long time away,Microsoft Office 2007 Key, that means the rest with the Longhorn wave also is 3 decades from cresting.

That implies there will likely be no Visual Studio equipment release for two decades after "Whidbey" (which Microsoft continues to be insisting will likely be a late 2004 product). No Office 12 until 2006. And Longhorn Server — which was expected, till this week, in 2006 — is now,Windows 7 Activation, more likely than not a 2007 products (given that it was set to lag the customer release by a year).

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

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


Check Out This First Stab at Defining Indigo From 2001

Each year, 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 is going to 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 portion of Longhorn.

Earlier this yr,Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft execs proclaimed the organization had decided against introducing a stop-gap interim Windows release between XP and Longhorn. That didn't look like a bad strategy when Longhorn consumer was a 2004 product. Even as a 2005 products, the idea of foregoing a "Shorthorn" wasn't outrageous. But now that it is 2006? Five many years without a new desktop? That's a long time.

Even CEO Steve Ballmer seemingly is champing in the bit for a new release. In talking up XP Service Pack 2 — which Microsoft has delayed right up until Q2/Q3 of next year 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 business is maintaining SP2 will likely be free. (Maybe 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 one more delay impact you in any way? If so, how?

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