Microsoft Corp. senior executive Paul Flessner gave attendees at the company"s Worldwide Partner Conference here Friday a taste of the future by laying out a product roadmap that included Yukon and Longhorn. Yukon, the next version of Microsoft"s SQL Server database, is slated for a late 2004 release; Longhorn, the next Windows update, will be released in both the client and Longhorn Office editions in 2005, with Windows Longhorn Server due in 2006; and another SQL Server release, code-named Arcadia, is due in 2006 and beyond.
In his keynote address, Flessner, a senior vice president at Microsoft, also said the company will offer a free add-on next year for users of its Small Business Server 2003 Premium Edition, known as BizTalk Server 2004 Partner Edition. Turning to the competitive landscape, Flessner said Microsoft intends to take market share from Linux on the server side, and he was unable to resist taking a swipe at Linux and its legal battle with The SCO Group. "The Linux community had proven they can copy features and do so incredibly efficiently, for which they are now getting into trouble. But they can"t copy the integration and innovation Microsoft brings," he said.