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"Yukon," the code-name for a major overhaul of SQL Server, will be ready for general availability sometime during the 2004 fiscal year, and "Longhorn," the code-name for the Windows operating system release after Windows .NET Server 2003, is coming in 2005, according to a senior Microsoft official (Jim Allchin).
Microsoft?s expectations regarding Yukon are more achievable, and Allchin's comments introduce a fudge factor. Microsoft has previously said Yukon would probably ship in 2003. By saying now that it's coming in fiscal year 2004, which starts in July 2003, Microsoft has given itself the first half of 2004 to deliver the product.
Both Yukon and Longhorn are part of a three-wave roadmap Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates recently outlined at Microsoft?s annual Financial Analysts meeting. Comprised of the ?Now wave? the ?Yukon wave? and the ?Longhorn wave?, Gates said the roadmap will account for most of the enterprise software coming out of Redmond over the next several years.
The Now wave is software the company expects to release by June 30, 2003. This includes Windows .NET Server, which just entered the Release Candidate 1 stage; Windows Media 9 Series; Windows XP Media Center Edition; Windows XP Tablet PC Edition; Windows CE for Smart Displays; and an update of Visual Studio .NET (Codename Everett).
As part of Longhorn, Allchin said customers can expect to see new features for intelligent auto configuration, such as BIOSes and firmware that can be ?automatically updated in a seamless way.? Also, Allchin said Longhorn will include new functionality for server resiliency, such as self-healing characteristics, a more componentized architecture, and additional monitoring services with filters that can ?dynamically? flow out to servers.
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