Thanks Vla for this unsurprising report from Paul Thurrotts fantastic news resource. Anyone hoping to see the next major release of Windows next year will be sorely disappointed, as various representatives from Microsoft revealed Tuesday morning that Windows "Longhorn" will not ship until the second half of 2004 at the earliest. The Longhorn delay revelation came on the opening day of the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in Seattle, a forum where Microsoft often discusses future directions and strategies.
The first Longhorn mention came during the keynote address, which was delivered by Jim Allchin, Group Vice President of the Platform Group at Microsoft. "Longhorn won"t ship until beyond 2003," Allchin said. "We are going to synchronize a tremendous amount of technology behind that release. You"ll see little pieces of those technologies throughout the show."
Mike Toutonghi, the Windows eHome Division Corporate Vice President, was a little more specific, both about the Longhorn timeline and which features we can expect in that release. Toutonghi"s comments came during a Tuesday morning session about new media opportunities and challenges in the connected home. "Longhorn will ship in the second half of 2004," Toutonghi said. "It will deliver the next generation of communications and collaboration experiences, streaming audio-video (AV) functionality, integrated device connectivity, simplified networking, and tools to help Microsoft deliver on our promise of the connected home."