Microsoft said Tuesday that it was delaying an update to its Windows Server software as well as the first version of Windows to support 64-bit x86 chips such as Advanced Micro Device’s Athlon 64.
Microsoft delays Windows Server update, 64-bit OS
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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I’m very dissapointed. I wonder why it’s taking so long. I thought the test versions were working quite well already.
…or not. Microsoft has learned lessons in the past about releasing software when said software (e.g. ME) was not ready. With all the delays and rescheduling going on, it’s easy to see that the resulting product will be, in Microsoft’s opinion, extraordinarily suited for the consumer. The real upset will come when Microsoft realizes that we–the general consumer base–desire far beyond perfection in order to be pleased. I feel for the hard-working Microsoft company–I really do.
i’m sure i’m wrong, but it seems that microsoft has delayed every one of its releases since the end of may. the last thing i can remember them releasing was Office for Mac, which was already late, and everything since has been delayed, it would seem almost indefinitely.
i’m not trying to troll, but wasn’t one of their attacks on FOSS from a few years ago was that their weren’t any roadmaps, that you couldn’t plan your IT schedule around FOSS projects because you never knew when the features you wanted would be completed. well with this past year from Microsoft, what can you do with their roadmaps?
i’m sure i’m wrong, but it seems that microsoft has delayed every one of its releases since the end of may. the last thing i can remember them releasing was Office for Mac, which was already late, and everything since has been delayed, it would seem almost indefinitely.
Everything has been delayed since May. SP2, 2003 server updates and now XP 64-bit.
First of the year isn’t far off from what they first were claiming (end of the year) but it does make you wonder whats going on.
If its a focus on quality then right on. I can deal with that. If its a lack of focus or development efforts being stretched too thin across multiple projects then I’d say there is reason for concern.
This is nothing new. Microsoft has been delaying releases for a long time now. After all, Windows 98 was supposed to be Windows 97.
Perhaps they want to blitz the public with a large number of products at one time. SP2 RC2 is running really well over here… I wonder why it hasn’t been released.
Guess this means Intel isn’t ready to launch their 64 bit chips yet so they asked MS to push it back some more so AMD can’t get ahead.
So 64 bit windows for AMD64 is what 1.5 years delayed now?
Has anyone run the betas? is it really that bad that it needed such delay? I really can’t belive it takes this long. I would think with the power MS has they could have done a port in weeks.
Hopefully Microsoft really are concentrating on delivering a fully-tested, secure, quality OS, rather than releasing at a ‘an arbitrary date’. They’re in a no-win situation, release early and with bugs and you can just imagine the comments we would see here at osnews. Release late again, and they disappoint a number of users…
Maybe it’s time they evaluate their press-releases regarding ship-dates, and give users realistic dates.
was released beta SP1 for windows2003 and xp-64.
This is hardly a phenomena which only MS suffers from. Pretty much all software companies or web agencies delay all their work all the time. It’s horrible but true. As far as I know there is only one organisation who keeps their deadlines in a reasonable way. Namely OpenBSD. Unfortunately OpenBSD isn’t for us deadly desktop users but they still keep their schedules…
This just shows the incredible strenght of the Open Source community, that has had AMD64 support for a long time now, even in desktop products from SuSE and RedHat (Fedora). And especially servers.
If FOSS can do it, for not only the kernel and core utilities, but thousands of application packs, and drivers. Why cant a multibillion dollar corporation do it? I wonder – it must be because of relationships with Intel, its simply not pushed high enough on their internal agenda. I think its sad, Microsoft is holding back innovation in the technology sector.
Meanwhile i’ll continue to run my AMD64 3200+ on Fedora Core 2, and my Opterons on BSD thank you very much
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there are a lot of FOSS projects (gentoo, and mono come to mind) that have set and kept good deadlines for releases. now, this could be a, release whatever we have on that day, kind of thing, but at least with mono, it doesn’t seem that way. with 25 years or so in the biz, you’d think MS would have CMMi down.
“They’re in a no-win situation, release early and with bugs and you can just imagine the comments we would see here at osnews. Release late again, and they disappoint a number of users…”
They are not in a no-win situation. They could not only release too early or too late but they could also set a realistic deadline and meet it.
Coming from a former Microsoft employee, these delays don’t surprise me. I’ve seen first hand how their programers work, and their attitude towards deadlines. They work hard, don’t get me wrong – but everyone in this company waits for the last possible second to get things done. But the challenge coming from this is you don’t have time to fix if something goes wrong.
Personally I think the upper management should really consider rethinking their groups and get people more on the ball.
But here’s the thing with Microsoft, even if they release the software on time or late the software is STILL going to have holes, security problems, and bugs. So to state it’s good that Microsoft is delaying everything – to “better the product” – I don’t agree one bit.
They released SP1 for Office 2003 yesturday. I don’t think that was delayed very much, but I agree it’s disappointing waiting for Whidbey and AMD64 Windows XP
Could it be that Microsoft wants to release a unified x86 64-Bit version that works on AMD-64 and Intel-64?
There is a difference now within Microsoft, though. They have been choosing more limited functionality in the name of security, which makes a BIG difference.
…Microsoft’s delays. I first became aware of the phenomenon with the release (or lack of one) of Windows 95. Microsoft has an established track record of delays.
From this, I conclude that the delays are not caused by an increasing emphasis on releasing bug free code, but is caused instead by continuing over-optimism.
In all fairness to Microsoft, they aren’t the only outfit that suffers from these delays, nor will they be the last.
Well XP SP2 slips from june to september, 64 bit slips to 2005 does anyone still really belives Longhorn will ship in 2007 (not to mention 2006).