According to developers close to the Redmond, Wash., company, a proposal to deliver a Windows ‘Yukon’ release—timed to tide over Microsoft and its users until the long-awaited Longhorn debuts—is on the company’s drawing boards. Microsoft executives have held fast to their promise that Longhorn will be the version of Windows designed to follow Windows XP on the desktop, and Windows .Net Server 2003 on the server. In recent weeks, however, company representatives have taken to calling Longhorn the next “major” version of Windows.
Microsoft Ponders Windows Upgrade for 2004
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Eugenia Loli
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is any one very suprised by this?? im not. my “potental” microsoft time layout
oct 2001-winxp
aug 2002- winxpSP1
march 2003- win.net server
dec 2003-winxp SE (also SP2)
aug. 2004- winxp SP3 (longhorn “beta”)
feb. 2005- “Longhorn” (or so we think)
sept. 2005 winxp SP4
jun. 2006 “longhorn SE”
aug. 2007 “blackcomb”
wasnt microsoft going to give us “ciro” or something that truned out to be win2000. They said that ciro was spoce to be “the object oriented flie system” (longhorn)but i think now they pushed it back to backcomb
i think in the meantime i will buy a mac
This is not really news. The only thing that has really changed are product codenames. About four months after the launch of Windows XP, something called “Blackcomb” was supposed to be the next major version of Windows, and it was supposed to be 2005 or later. “Longhorn” was supposed to be the next minor revision, 1.5-2 years after the release of Windows XP. All Microsoft has really done is change the codenames around a bit… which is something they do quite frequently (remember Neptune/Odyssey/Whistler).
…so does this mean that we’ll end up with another WinME?
I think you are right shice-we are definitely looking at another WinME comming along before ’04.
“timed to tide over Microsoft and its users until the long-awaited Longhorn debuts”
Shouldn’t that read ‘timed to tide over Microsoft and its POCKETBOOK until the long-awaited Longhorn debuts’
I mean, honestly .. I don’t see anybody foaming at the mouth waiting impatiently for the next version of Windows. In fact, I’d say it is just more of a pain in the ass for those in the tech field .. just one more version of Windows to have to support. Hell, if MS would just wait to release something worthwhile, We probably would have had:
Win95 -> Win98SE -> Win2k -> Longhorn.
Considering we’re up to Mandrake 9 and Redhat 8, Suse 8, and Slackware 8, I don’t suppose Microsoft is the only one guilty of this crime
But Windows costs money. If I had to shell out 200 bucks every time the new Red Hat linux came out.. i’d demand that they make SIGNIFICANT upgrades to justify the cost.
While you complete forget the fact that different distros have different naming conventions.
Redhat: 7.x meaning binary compatibility with previous releases, x.0 meaning breaking binary compatibility, as with the case of 7.x to 8.x which moves from gcc 2.96-rh to 3.2
SuSE/Mandrake: Traditional naming scheme based on how much of a difference between the new and old version.
Microsoft’s self interests dictate that they need to keep releasing things on a semi-regular basis. It helps keep income flowing and it keeps people’s attention on them (“oh look, MS just announced Windows XP II, Third Edition, Service Pack 5!”). They’ll make-up as many different variations/versions of Windows as they need to in order to keep the hampster wheel moving…
i agree with that. all microsoft ever does is release OS after OS, year after year. if they had more of a time span between their OS’s they would turn out alot better. And we wouldnt end up with another Windows ME again, and have to put up with that crap.
Why not you move the major parts of Longhorn to Blackcomb, which is suppose to be the next major release of Windows?
Makes more sense to me.
In July at its .Net Strategy Day, Microsoft officially redrew its product road map to focus on three waves: the Now wave (2002); the Yukon wave (2003) and the Longhorn wave (2004+).
Wow, remember First Wave, that TV program? The first wave was to prepare earth, the second is to attack earth slowly, and the third is to colonize earth. Wow 🙂
Shice: …so does this mean that we’ll end up with another WinME?
Trust me, it wouldn’t be as bad as Windows Millenium (biggest Windows flop ever). It may be unnessacary, but it wouldn’t be that terrible. It would be more like Windows 98SE.
Torrey: But Windows costs money. If I had to shell out 200 bucks every time the new Red Hat linux came out.. i’d demand that they make SIGNIFICANT upgrades to justify the cost.
For people that buys the box set, the upgrades isn’t free (except maybe for Mandrake, which gives two free upgrades). If you want to go out and download some ISO and burn it to a CD – that is totally different.
Besides, for SuSE upgrades aren’t free.
Steve: i agree with that. all microsoft ever does is release OS after OS, year after year.
Actually, Microsoft employs a loose 18 month upgrade cycle for their consumer market.