...from: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1640211,00.asp

Microsoft to Gut Longhorn to Make 2006 Delivery Date

By Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft Watch and Darryl K. Taft August 27, 2004

UPDATED: After the cuts, Longhorn won't look much like the early builds that Microsoft has been distributing, but it should run existing applications.

Microsoft is cutting back its Longhorn client's planned feature set so as to be able to make its current delivery targets: Beta 1 by next year and final release some time in 2006.

Microsoft officially confirmed what had been leaked by developer sources late on Friday: changes to its future roadmap for the desktop version of Longhorn. And while developers and customers who expected they'd be required to rewrite their applications to take advantage of Longhorn may be happy with Microsoft's roadmap changes, others who were banking on promised Longhorn features, such as the next-generation Windows File System, will be far less so.

The Windows File System (WinFS)$B!=(Btechnology that was set to simplify information storage and retrieval$B!=(Bwon't make it into the final, shipping versions of Longhorn client, company officials said. WinFS also won't be part of Longhorn server, the server complement of Longhorn that is still due out in 2007, as Microsoft announced earlier this year.

The end result? Longhorn is going to be a lot more of an evolutionary than a revolutionary Windows release.

"Longhorn is going to stop being a whole new thing and more of an XP with a lot of good new stuff," said one developer close to Microsoft, who requested anonymity.

[...]

=========== ...from: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/Aug04/08 -27Target2006PR.asp

Microsoft Announces 2006 Target Date for Broad Availability Of Windows "Longhorn" Client Operating System

Windows WinFX Developer Technologies Will Be Made Available For Windows XP and Windows Server 2003

REDMOND, Wash. -- Aug. 27, 2004 -- Microsoft Corp. today announced it will target broad availability of the Windows(I.(B client operating system code-named "Longhorn" in 2006, and make key elements of the Windows WinFXTM developer platform in "Longhorn" available for Windows XP and Windows ServerTM 2003.

"Longhorn" will deliver major improvements in user productivity, important new capabilities for software developers, and significant advancements in security, deployment and reliability.

"Getting 'Longhorn' to customers in 2006 will provide important advances in performance, security and reliability, and will help accelerate the creation of exciting new applications by developers across the industry," said Bill Gates, chairman and chief software

Microsoft will deliver a Windows storage subsystem, code-named "WinFS," after the "Longhorn" release. The new storage system provides advanced data organization and management capabilities and will be in beta testing when the "Longhorn" client becomes available.

[...]

============ The Microsoft "LongHorn" page is at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/longhorn/