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Microsoft says Longhorn to be client-only Windows release
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November 13, 2002 (Computerworld) -- Microsoft Corp. made a "common-sense" decision late last month to change its original plan and make its next major Windows operating system release, code-named Longhorn, a client-only product, a company official confirmed today.
But the goal for Longhorn's successor, code-named Blackcomb, will be to deliver the client and server operating systems at the same time, said Bob O'Brien, a group product manager in Microsoft's Windows server division. O'Brien said a specific time frame is difficult to predict. At this point, Blackcomb is not expected before the end of 2005 or early 2006, he said.
"Any of the server technologies that we were looking toward delivering in Longhorn will be carried forward in the Blackcomb time frame," O'Brien added. "There are no cuts being made."
O'Brien said the decision to eliminate the Longhorn server release reflected customer feedback that Longhorn would be emerging too soon after Windows .Net Server 2003, which is due to ship 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."
Windows .Net Server 2003 -- which had been code-named Whistler -- was originally scheduled to ship the same time the Windows XP client hit stores in October 2001. But the server operating system wasn't ready then, and further delays resulted when Microsoft halted production earlier this year for an intensive security review as part of its Trustworthy Computing initiative.
O'Brien said that the server team wanted to make sure the Windows .Net Server 2003 release is "rock-solid" and that it has no intention of rushing it out the door. Key features in the new server operating system include native support for XML and Web services, real-time communications capabilities, and improved performance and reliability, he said.
When asked whether the slipping date for Windows .Net Server 2003 affected the Longhorn decision, O'Brien said the server team probably could have driven out a release in the same period as Longhorn if it had to do so.
"The trade-off you always make is, can you get everything you want to get done in the time frame?" O'Brien said. "What that means is you're either going to deliver fewer new capabilities in order to make a time frame, or you're going to extend the time frame so you can deliver a broader set of technology that customers are looking for you as a supplier to deliver."
In an interview with Computerworld in May, Brian Valentine, senior vice president of Windows, said Microsoft's goal is to ship client and server operating systems together because "it's very expensive not to."
O'Brien said the Longhorn decision will be costly in some ways. "But if it's the right thing for the customer, that's a cost we need to be willing to bear," he said.
The Longhorn client release isn't due to ship before mid-2004 at the earliest, according to Rogers Weed, a corporate vice president at Microsoft's Windows product management group.
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