Longhorn in 2005; Or not?

July 25, 2003 • computers • 206 words • about a 1 minute read

Gates appeared to distance himself from a commitment the company made at its Windows Engineering Hardware Conference (WinHEC) in May to deliver Longhorn in 2005, refusing to comment on the release date.

So it seems that Gates is getting quiet when people bring up the 2005 launch date. In my experience, when people like Gates stop talking about launch dates its a pretty good chance that you’re not likely to see that product ANYWHERE near that launch date. I’d say 2006 is more likely, but that’s just my totally uninformed opinion ;)

Pair that up with these two ancillary tidbits:

Gates himself says that users won’t start really using Longhorn for up to 1 or 2 years after its released (2007 or 2008 using my numbers)
Internet Explorer won’t be updated until we see Longhorn. That’s straight from the mouth of Microsoft.

We’re stuck with 95% of people visiting our sites with the pile of crap that is IE6 until 2008. All I’ve got to say is that in the next 5 years Mozilla had better really rev it up and don’t let up. I can definitely see Microsoft’s crappy browser becoming a second class citizen on the net if these numbers hold up.