| I've been talking today at UGent about the .NET Framework and the future of the Microsoft (.NET) platform for the upcoming years (SQL Server 2005, .NET Framework v2.0, VS 2005, Team System, Longhorn, Orcas, ASP.NET v2.0, ClickOnce, DSI, etc). Although I didn't mention the current schedule for Longhorn, I'd like to share it over here (source: various places on the internet): - M9 - March 2005 (that's this month, yes!)
- Beta 1 - May 2005
- Beta 2 - October 2005
- RC0 (quite exceptional to have an RC0) - February 2006
- RC1 - April 2006
- RTM - May 24, 2006
Fingers crossed ... Today there's also the news that (long-awaited and "subject to various delays") WinFS might come to XP too (see http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,1995,1772619,00.asp?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535), as Avalon and Indigo do (both to XP and W2K3). In the end this would mean that the WinFX core and kernel enhancements are the key features that will be unique to Longhorn. Nevertheless, I'm burning with impatience for LH to come... Updates - There seems to be some confusion about RTM and GA (general availability). May 24th is currently known as the RTM date, which means that the launch (GA) should be a couple of months later, somewhere in the (late) summer of 2006.
- For what WinFS is concerned, the last plan I heard about is that the beta would come at the time LH Client is released.
- LH Server (and possibly LH Client SP1) are planned for the first half of 2007. Maybe WinFS RTM will be synch'ed with this release too (since the real full WinFS story only makes sense with support on both client and server).
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