Allchin on Longhorn's significance

In an interview with eWeek, Jim Allchin, group vice president of Microsoft's Platforms group, explains that Longhorn, the long anticipated successor to Windows XP, represents much more than just a Service Pack update. In the eWEEK interview, Allchin says that Longhorn is a "'big deal' -- not just for the company, but also for the industry, as it will create a lot of opportunity, especially for new programs leveraging the peer-to-peer platform."

eWEEK editor Peter Galli continues...

Allchin's claims come at a critical time for Microsoft, which is prepping the next version of its Windows desktop to launch by holiday season 2006. Microsoft is prepared to spend a large amount of money developing, marketing and promoting Longhorn as the platform for the next decade, Allchin said, adding that the Longhorn development team is also working toward creating an API set for longevity. In a lengthy explanation of why he thinks Longhorn is important, Allchin prefaced his thoughts by saying this was subject to change, "because I may see other things that haven't even made it to Beta One yet that are even more compelling. But this is what I believe right now. This is Jim's view."

Read the full eWeek article here...

Microsoft: Why Longhorn Matters

Is an EOY 2006 Longhorn release date achievable?

Meanwhile, Microsoft Watch editor Mary Jo Foley questions how realistic a 2006 ship date for Longhorn is.

Foley writes...

Microsoft watchers have been guesstimating since well before the first Longhorn Professional Developer Conference (October 2003) when Microsoft's XP successor would ship. Starting in earnest last August, when Microsoft gutted Longhorn by exorcising the WinFS file system in order to get it out the door, speculation intensified, regarding whether or not Redmond could make good on its reset 2006 delivery target. We want to believe. But we've been lulled by the Longhorn vision one too many times. We admit it: We're leery that Microsoft can deliver the features and functionality Allchin promised this week by Q3/Q4 2006.

Read the full Microsoft Watch article here...

Longhorn in 2006: Can Microsoft Really Pull This Off?

Longhorn Embedded

Microsoft has stated that the next major release of Windows XP Embedded -- code-named "Longhorn Embedded" -- will follow within about 90 days of the release of Windows XP (i.e. Longhorn).

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