Has Longhorn Reached Beta?
Spinner
Birmingham, UK
Has the next major version of Windows reached Beta? Speculation and rumours are mounting.
Source: FlexbetaWell folks, its taken a long time, but from what we know Longhorn has reached the beta stage. Internal development on Beta 1 started on November 11th.
As many of you know, yesterday I posted an article about Longhorn reaching beta (or close to it). Many other forums (including our own) have said that this information was false and had no basis at all. Well, it does. According to Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows everything I had stated yesterday was true. Many people were confused, angry, and happy all at the same time about this news. Well guys, it is true from what we have found out....believe it or not.
According to Paul's November 18th, 2004 update of his Longhorn Preview Article, the following schedule is the most updated internal schedule for Longhorn on the net:
Longhorn Release Schedule (Internal Documentation: October 2004)
Longhorn D1 (a.k.a M9, or milestone 9) development concludes: November 10, 2004
Longorn Beta 1 internal development: November 11, 2004 to November 24, 2004
Longhorn Beta 1 lockdown: November 29, 2004 to January 14, 2005
Longhorn Beta 1 escrow: January 17, 2005 to February 16, 2005
Longhorn Beta 1 release (client and Server): February 16, 2005
Longhorn RTM: May 22, 2006
According to internal documentation he first reviewed in late October, Microsoft is planning an aggressive schedule for its oft-delayed Longhorn successor to Windows XP and will ship the long-awaited Beta 1 release of that operating system on February 16. The latest release schedule notes that Microsoft will begin locking down the code for Beta 1 in early December 2004 and then enter the so-called escrow phase in early January.
From what he sees and given Microsoft's historic inability to meet release schedules, any or all of this information could change over time. But the documentation he has seen is quite recent and represents the current schedule. Paul finds it interesting that the Beta 1 date for Longhorn hasn't changed since April 2004, when he last saw an internal schedule document for the project.
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