Microsoft updates Longhorn roadmap

Rethink IT, Oct, 2004

Now that XP Service Pack 2 has shipped, Microsoft says it is free to put all its efforts once more into the much delayed Longhorn platform, which was pulled back so that the software giant could address critical Windows security issues.

Microsoft has announced major updates to its Windows roadmap, setting a shipment date for Longhorn, the first new edition of Windows since Windows XP. The software giant plans to ship the desktop and notebook version of Longhorn by the end of 2006 and the server edition is slated for early 2007.

This relatively ambitious development schedule comes at a price: Longhorn will not include the Windows File System (WinFS), a highly anticipated new feature for rapidly storing and retrieving information. According to chairman Bill Gates, the WinFS features would have pushed Longhorn's release back into 2007.

Longhorn will still include two other big new features: Avalon, a three dimensional user interface system, and Indigo, an ecommerce framework for software and services.