Roadmap to Longhorn Clarified

In the first four months of 2005, Microsoft has already released the first service pack for Windows Server 2003 and 64-bit versions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. However, the Windows team still faces considerable pressure, as it must deliver technology previews, betas, release candidates, and final code for “Longhorn” (the next major Windows client release), as well as other Windows server and auxiliary products, such as the Windows Server Update Service, before the end of 2006. To meet the deadline, schedules for some new products, such as a high-performance computing solution, could be at risk.

Allchin Restarts Longhorn Wave

With the release of Windows Server 2003 SP1 and editions of Windows for the AMD and Intel x64 processors, the Windows team has returned its main development focus to Longhorn.

As a prelude to the Apr. 2005 Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC), Platforms Group Vice President Jim Allchin signaled that Longhorn is once again becoming the main priority on the Windows roadmap by introducing the “Third Decade of Windows.” Allchin used his presentation to outline broad goals for Longhorn, including providing unrivaled security and safety, improving users’ ability to visualize and organize information, reducing operational costs, being the “mobile OS,” and providing operational simplicity through greater intelligence and consistency. However, Allchin provided few details on how Longhorn would accomplish these lofty goals.