The Windows Vista timeline

• Tags:
• Windows,
• Delay,
• Windows Vista,
• Longhorn

Greg Shultz

Published: 19 May 2006 13:20 BST

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It looks like Microsoft will indeed release Beta 2 of Windows Vista at its annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC), which is scheduled for 22-25 May. That means that by next week we should have our hands on what Microsoft has been promising to be the best look so far at what the company envisions Windows Vista will be when it is released sometime in 2007. As I began planning this edition of the Windows Vista Report, I began to look back at how long we've been anticipating Windows XP's successor and came to the conclusion that it goes all the way back to 2001. To corroborate my recollections, I paid a visit to Google as well as the archives of Microsoft's PressPass site to see what I could dig up. Let's take a look.

2001
Microsoft first started talking about a new operating system code named Longhorn in July of 2001, about three months before the actual release of Windows XP. Here's the introduction from an article titled "Windows Longhorn To Succeed XP?" that appeared on the BetaNews site on 24 July, 2001:

In a surprise change to its Windows strategy, Microsoft is considering pushing back the release of Blackcomb, and instead following up Windows XP with an interim operating system currently dubbed 'Longhorn'. First reported by eWeek, Longhorn will not contain the .NET-centric core the software giant had planned for the next version of Windows. Blackcomb was initially slated for a late 2002 release, but Microsoft officials now concede even Longhorn may not hit that mark.

2002
In July of 2002, Bill Gates began touting Longhorn as a significant breakthrough in the Windows operating system. Even back then, there was speculation that such an endeavor would have schedule problems. In an article titled "A Fork in the Road to Longhorn?" that appeared on the Direction On Microsoft site on 21 October, 2002, details about these events was revealed:

Microsoft has not yet shipped Windows .NET Server, but that has not stopped senior executives from publicly describing a future Windows release, code-named Longhorn. While its features haven't been totally defined, Longhorn entails a redesign of major parts of Windows, including the file and graphics systems. As a consequence, customers and partners trying to plan around the Windows release schedule should be careful about betting on what Longhorn will be and when it will arrive, and anticipate the possibility of an interim Windows release in late 2004 or early 2005.

2003
At the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference on 27 October, 2003, Bill Gates kicked off his Keynote by dubbing the event the "Longhorn PDC". About midway through the speech, Gates introduced the first live demonstration of Longhorn and we were all stunned by what we saw on the screen. A transcript of that speech as well as the demonstration is available on the Microsoft's PressPass site. Here are some excerpts:

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