Microsoft to release Longhorn in ’06

REDMOND, Wash., Aug 28, 2004 (United Press International via COMTEX) — The Microsoft Corp. has decided to advance the timetable on its much-anticipated overhaul of Windows, the Financial Times reported Saturday.

Code-named Longhorn, the new operating system will not only be released sooner than previously announced — in 2006 — but it will be a more modest upgrade of the company’s current Windows XP operating system, now used on some 650 million computers.

Distractions over security are blamed for the revised Longhorn schedule, since Microsoft has to shift most of its software developers into projects designed to fight a plague of viruses and other forms of malicious Internet code.

Rather than delay Longhorn any longer, the company said it decided to release a simplified version of the technology.

Microsoft said it dropped a plan to build a new method of storing files into Longhorn that would have made it far easier for users to find files on their PC and link different types of media, such as music and videos. Known as WinFS, the software had been one of three new core technologies to be included in Longhorn.

United Press International