Longhorn Beta 1 Still on Track for 2004
Microsoft Group Vice President Jim Allchin reiterated the Longhorn schedule I reported back in early June: "Now, the next step for Longhorn, we've had some design previews already," he said. "We've shared with partners as well as ISVs and IHVs what we're doing. We do have regular builds running of this. The next big event is PDC, which is our Professional Developer Conference, which is coming up at the end of October. We will be handing out CDs there to get the developers going, to let them see the great capability that we're putting into Windows, and then later next year we will be doing Beta 1, which will be a broad beta of the technology of Windows code-named Longhorn. As Bill said, there are other pieces coming in the Longhorn wave but I'm just talking about the client here." In other words, Longhorn is still on track for a 2005 release.
Is Longhorn really on track for 2005? While the company's official stance is that things haven't changed, things really have changed. First, the Longhorn Server release is now official. Second, executives at the company are starting to reiterate how complicated and huge this release is. "Longhorn is a bit scary," Gates admitted during lunch at the meeting. "We have to be willing to change things. It should drive a whole range of upgrades, but that could be sort of delayed. It's so innovative, and there is a lot of work to be done in terms of what has to go in and what has not. If you split it up, then you delay one of the really great pieces." In other words, don't hold the company to a specific release date. This is Microsoft we're talking about, after all.
Windows 9x, NT 4 Still Huge
One interesting little factoid, according to Jim Allchin: "There are probably still 350 million PCs with [Windows] NT 4.0 or Windows 9x on them." Allchin mentioned this figure as an opportunity for upgrades, but I bet the figure is quite a bit higher than that, actually.
Windows XP SP2 This Year
Allchin also mentioned a few details about the release of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), which is one of my most common email questions these days. "We are having Service Pack 2 for Windows XP coming out this fiscal year," he said, a release that is "primarily not [about new] features, but there will be a few things that we're adding to that." Those new things, by the way, include the ability to have two interactive users working off the same XP Professional box at the same time, one at the machine, and one remotely using Remote Desktop. The feature is geared toward Smart Display owners, however. Allchin also said that new XP Tablet PC Edition and Media Center Edition release would ship this year too, though we already knew that.
New Version of Plus! Digital Media Edition on the Way
I've often touted the Photo Story feature in Plus! Digital Media Edition as the single reason why all XP users need to grab this $20 package, and apparently Microsoft agrees the tool is a hidden gem. A "Lite" version of the program appears in the recently released Microsoft Digital Image Suite 9, and Allchin revealed that a new version is on the way: "We have an update of the Plus! pack coming out," he said. "We had [Photo Story] in the first version, but we've upgraded it in a significant way. [The new version gives you can option called] 'Create a video CD of your story.' So, a key improvement that we're making here is that you can select this, and then burn a CD, a video CD, that you can play in virtually any modern DVD player. So, even if you don't have a PC, you can be able to share it with friends and family or others that only have DVD players." Sounds cool, but I hope it's a free upgrade.
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