No Longhorn beta two likely in November

[Alpine]

Brace for December 16th, RTM in summer of 2006.

AlthoughMicrosoft promised a Beta 2 release in November, that is not going to happen. The fresh date for release has been set for December 16th, and you can expect leading companies from the world of graphics to launch their official or not-so-official drivers on their homepages.

Beta 2 was specced to use the Aeroglass user interface, which will debut 3D rendering to Windows-world and finally make use of all those dozens of GigaFLOPS that today graphic chips posses.

If all things go well, we'll see at least one version of Windows Vista RTM'ed (Release To Manufacturer, an OEM version) on July 25th, 2006 - exactly 49 months after Windows XP got their RTM build. The first Vistas will be Professional Edition and Home Premium Edition, for all those new notebook/desktop computer owners.

In months following after, Microsoft will complete the range of SKU's (Stock Keeping Units), which is rumoured to be somewhere in the region of 20. However, bear in mind that SKU counts retail and OEM copies separately, plus add volume licence kits to the boot. Altough we have offered an "arm and a leg" we can't get hold of copies for love, money or hate.

The INQuirer