Buy Office 2007 Microsoft Watch - Operating System

October 11, 2003 twelve:00 PM
It really is Official: No Longhorn Until finally 2006


At Microsoft's worldwide spouse conference this week, Microsoft last but not least admitted that Longhorn won't begin to see the light-weight of day till 2006.

This is not a guess on my portion, educated or otherwise. Or flame bait. Or conjecture. This really is directly through the horses' mouths.

At the show this week, many Microsoft execs casually slipped into their presentations that Longhorn is three years away from debut. Final time I did the math, which was not 2005, as promised only a number of months back. Nor is it even the wishy-washy "2005+" that some execs had taken to attaching to their products timetables. The new target is 2006, simple and easy.

Did the organization assume nobody would recognize? Or maybe in the end that Abita beer on draft served up on the Friday evening companion party at the Property of Blues, that nobody could count?

Maybe Microsoft is assuming that tacking another year onto a products that's currently far from debut would not make a difference. But if Longhorn consumer is three years away, that means the rest of the Longhorn wave also is three a long time from cresting.

That means there will likely be no Visual Studio resources release for two years soon after "Whidbey" (which Microsoft continues to be insisting will likely be a late 2004 item). No Workplace twelve until finally 2006. And Longhorn Server — which was expected, right up until this week, in 2006 — is now,Cheap Office 2007, more likely than not a 2007 merchandise (given that it was set to lag the client release by a yr).

For some customers,Buy Office 2007, a 12 months delay actually might be considered a relief. Not everyone wants and needs major item upgrades every two years. And for Microsoft,Office 2010 Key, 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 on the heart of Longhorn,Office 2010 Home And Business, 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 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 yr, Microsoft execs proclaimed the company 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 products. Even as a 2005 merchandise, the idea of foregoing a "Shorthorn" wasn't outrageous. But now that it can be 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 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,Windows 7 Pro, OEMs, downloads and in other "creative ways." But the organization is maintaining SP2 is going to be free. (It's possible 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 another delay impact you in any way? If so, how?

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