Microsoft officials say they are again considering shipping a server version of the Longhorn operating system after announcing late last year that it would be released for the desktop only.
In addition, the company also is again considering a desktop version of Blackcomb, the follow-on release to Longhorn, after saying that version of the OS would be a server-only release.
Versions of both operating systems, which will follow Windows Server 2003 slated to ship April 24, are now being re-evaluated, says Brian Valentine, senior vice president of the Windows division at Microsoft.
"It is in flux - that is a fair thing to say," Valentine says. "There is a wave of very interesting things that we are doing in the Longhorn timeframe and we have yet to decide the delivery vehicle for those. The goal is to be non-intrusive, or least non-disruptive, to the customer environment."
The ship dates for Longhorn and Blackcomb have been moving targets for nearly a year, and now version issues are again in play.