The Windows roadmap

Hi, my name is Mary Jo Foley. I'm the editor of the ZDNet "All About Microsoft" blog, and I'm here today to talk about something that Microsoft doesn't like me to talk about, but that my readers ask me about a lot, and that is the Windows Road Map.

Let's start with the Windows Client. On the Windows Client side of the house, here's what we've seen and here's what's coming. Windows XP came out in 2001. Windows XP SP2 -- which is, despite its name, not really a service pack, but an actual full release of Windows -- came out in 2004. Windows Vista came out in 2007, this year. We believe the next release of Windows that's coming is Windows 7, in 2009; and following that, probably Windows eight in 2011, if Microsoft can get back on schedule.

On the Windows Server side of the house, things were a little more on track. Microsoft delivered, in 2003, Windows Server 2003 - not surprising, given the name. In 2005, Microsoft rolled out Windows Server 2003 R2 -- R2 is release two. At the end of this year or early next, we're going to see Windows Server 2008, the next version of Windows Server, also known as Longhorn Server. And sometime around 2010 or 2011, we're expecting Microsoft to deliver whatever it's going to be called: Windows Server Next is how we refer to it right now.

There are a few things that aren't on this Road Map that I'd like to tell you about as well. These are things Microsoft won't talk about at all, but we're doing our best to talk about them as much as possible: Vista Service Pack 1, a product that may or may not exist, depending on who you believe at Microsoft. We think Windows Vista Service Pack one is going to come out at the end of this year, around 2007, maybe early 2008. Fiji, which we believe is the release of Media Center that's going to be a standalone update to Windows Vista, also is due around 2007 or 2008.

A product I get asked about pretty much daily, XP SP3, the next major service pack for Windows XP, originally was supposed to come out around 2005. Then, it was 2006. Then we heard 2007. The latest date we've got for this now is 2008, and if it does come out then, many people will be surprised, as a number of people have expected that Microsoft's going to cancel that product altogether.

Microsoft's goal is basically to try to get Windows back on track. The way they want Windows to work is a minor release, a major release, a minor release, a major release. They're going to try to alternate these every two years, so that every four years, there'll be a new major release of Windows Client and Windows Server. They're not even trying to synch the two products up at this point. All they're trying to do is get them back on track. And that's the goal right now at Microsoft: to get back to the original Windows Road Map.