‘R2’ still has yet to go to beta, but Microsoft is well on its way to finalizing the product due to ship in the latter half of 2005, according to sources.
Windows Server ‘R2’ Details Begin to Leak
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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 don’t know what’s going on there in windows world. Just when you thought you understood the releases and versioning schemes here comes more craziness. What is this, Longhorn Server, or 2005 Server System? They should consider calling it .NET Server, that sounds pretty neat.
I was just reading through the Server roadmap yesterday…
IIRC, Windows 2003 R2 is a slightly updated version of 2003. It still is basically 2003, but with additional tools added in to make admining easier, and some additional functionality to make it more robust.
Longhorn Server is scheduled for ’07 release, 12 months post Longhorn release. IIRC Longhorn was called Blackcomb??? (Or Blackcomb has been pushed back anoth 3yrs, who knows).
2005 Server system, is the M$ effort to ensure that all services that sit on top of Windows (eh SQL, Exchange, Sharepoint, ISA, etc), have a common software base. ATM all additional products are developed isolated from each other, and this “new” scheme, is to ensure that all common components between all products are shared… The term “2005 Server System” is to define the products that share this common base, (also called the “common engineering base”). This is mainly designed to ensure that when running multiple services on one box, that there is going to be no DLL hell…
So the next version of Exchange, will most likely have a marketing moniker of “Exchange 2005, is part of the M$ 2005 Server System”, or something similar…
PS. I have no insider knowledge, and all information was derived from publically available roadmaps and PR releases.
“Microsoft has a lot on its plate,” said Cherry. “They need to finish and ship Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1, Windows Update Services (WUS), 64-bit editions for the AMD and Intel x64 processors, Windows Server 2003 R2, the Windows editions for high performance computing, and then betas for Longhorn, the WinFX and other Longhorn technologies for XP, and Longhorn Server. They also have to work on the storage products.
Perhaps, MS should not drop out as many prouducts as freaquent and concentract on patchs. Just for the desktop you have:
98
98se
98me
2000
xp
And yes I know that 98 was phased out, but come on, how much greed can one company exhibit. I will say one thing, everyone is going to have to upgrade to XP before Longhone comes out. Might be a year or more without patchs. Just a plain scary thought.
This is xp sp2 all over again. they cant release a new product just yet so they will hype a service pack and assure something like “security” as a feature
They’re the biggest software company in the world and they have alot of projects but they also have alot of money to go along with it. However, its becoming clear to consumers that MS is failing to bring the ‘next big thing’ like it did in 95-99. MS has many, many products – most of them I can’t even name but they’re spreading themselves too thin for customers to think that MS is going to satisfy every single need of every customer. That’s why many shops have turned to specialty programs and OS’s that do specific things and do them well.
Longhorn is the next big thing. Longhorn Server is being built so that the consumer can add and remove features. While I dont think Longhorn will be a Linux killer, like I dont believe Linux is a Windows kiler. I think Microsoft should do quite well.
Thanks for the explanation. You knwo what is funny. I just came up with the name “2005 Server System”! And then it actually exists! I wanted to point out that MS has too many products and has a confusing naming scheme. It’s great that there’s a roadmap document, but it’s too much info. The fact that I came up with a name, and it was actually a MS marketing brandname says enough.