From the WinInfo Newsletter, (which is generally pretty good, IMO):
According to recent internal schedules I've seen, Longhorn and Office 12 are set to arrive concurrently on May 22, 2006. And the first Longhorn beta is set for February 16, 2005--the same beta 1 date I first reported in April. Naturally, this schedule could change--we're talking about Microsoft, after all--but the massive Microsoft infrastructure finally seems to be rumbling to life. For beta testers and Windows enthusiasts, 2005 looks to be a busy year.
Which I read as, “Don't worry about having to support Longhorn in the real world until at least 2008.” That's not an inidictment of the product. Just means that I'm going to go back to working on solving problems with technologies that my customers actually use - no sense getting too excited just yet.
That's kind of the difference between PDCs 2001 and 2003. PCD 2001 showed stuff coming out SOON! PDC 2003 showed stuff coming out so far away that I can't even begin to get interested in it. Oh, in 2007 (I doubt the 2006 date, and even then no customer will have gotten around to installing it yet) I'll have to relearn everything about Windows development... great, thanks!
ReplyDeleteI actually don't see it as a negative thing: I'd rather know farther ahead of time. I'm just not going to do much about it now.
ReplyDeleteLast time (.NET), "relearning everything about Windows development" was a huge win, so I personally am looking forward to that part, too.