Next Major Windows Release to Be Client-Only

Computerworld - The delayed ship date for Windows .Net Server 2003 has prompted Microsoft Corp. to change its plans and skip the server release that had been code-named Longhorn.

Bob O'Brien, a group product manager in Microsoft's Windows server division, confirmed last week that Longhorn will be a client-only release. He said the "common-sense decision" to scratch the server version reflected customer feedback that Longhorn would emerge too soon after Windows .Net Server 2003, which is due early next year.

"Servers are certainly a bit of an expensive implementation for our customers, and giving them server releases that are too close together makes it difficult for them to deploy them," O'Brien said. "We always have to balance our schedules against what the customers feel is the right schedule for them."

Releasing the Product

But the company's goal for Longhorn's successor, code-named Blackcomb, will be simultaneous delivery of the client and server operating systems, O'Brien said. In a May interview with Computerworld, Brian Valentine, senior vice president of Windows at Microsoft, said that "it's very expensive not to" release them at the same time.

O'Brien said Blackcomb isn't expected until the end of 2005 or early 2006, but he also noted the difficulty of making predictions at an early stage.

Mike Silver, an analyst at Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Conn., said his firm is pegging Blackcomb for 2006 or the first half of 2007. But he added that Microsoft will have to deliver an option pack prior to Blackcomb with needed server features, such as dynamic partitioning for high-end servers and stand-alone Lightweight Directory Access Protocol functionality, that aren't in Windows .Net Server 2003.

Windows .Net Server 2003, which was code-named Whistler, originally was scheduled to ship at the same time as the Windows XP client, which was released in October of last year. But the server operating system wasn't ready then, and it encountered further delays after Microsoft halted production earlier this year for an intensive security review as part of its Trustworthy Computing initiative.

O'Brien said the server team wants to make sure Windows .Net Server 2003 is "rock solid" before it goes out the door. Key new features include native support for XML and Web services, new real-time communications capabilities and improved performance and reliability, he said.

O'Brien declined comment on specific Longhorn and Blackcomb features, but he noted that Microsoft is focused on developing technology to integrate data from multiple sources and let users query that data as if it were stored in one place. Regarding Blackcomb server, he added, "there are no cuts being made" in any of the server technologies that Microsoft was looking to to deliver in Longhorn.