* Waiting for Longhorn
This week many of the people who write third-party software for Windows as well as those who create utilities that expand on the functionality of Microsoft applications are gathering in Los Angeles for the annual Microsoft Professional Developers Conference. There will also be plenty of “in-house” developers as well as a large press presence. One of the major topics is supposed to be “Longhorn.”
Longhorn is the next version of Windows. Currently, the successor to Windows XP is slated to ship in 2005 with the Server version (the follow-on to Windows Server 2003) due in late 2006/early 2007. Lots of analysts, pundits and operating system junkies will hang on every word a Microsoft employee utters during PDC in an effort to get an edge and know exactly when the new operating system will ship.
Is there any real reason we should care?
If the new desktop operating system ships in spring 2005 or spring 2006 – does it matter that much to us today? Tomorrow? Next month? Next year?
I know a lot of you are still supporting Windows 2000 servers and desktops, even Windows 9x desktops along with NT 4 servers. You’re still planning your rollout of Windows XP to the desktop. With all the attention being paid to Longhorn, people are beginning to ask if they should skip XP and wait for the next version before upgrading. That would be a mistake.
If there’s one thing we learned earlier this month at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference – and which will be often re-iterated during the PDC – it’s that security now takes precedence over just about everything else coming out of Redmond. If the new operating system hasn’t passed its security tests, then it just won’t ship no matter how hard the Windows cheerleaders in the press try to make it so.
If you’re currently running XP desktops and Windows Server 2003, then you’ve nothing to worry about. You’ll want to prepare to get the public beta versions of the various Longhorn products when they appear in a couple of years, but you’ll also want to run them in your lab for a while before rolling them out. You’ve got lots of time and there’s no need to deviate from your current plan.
For those running Windows 2000 on the desktops and servers, if you’re already rolling out (or started planning to roll out) XP and 2003, don’t change anything. Your plan is working, stick to it.
If your desktops have Windows 9x or ME installed, or if there are still some NT servers in your network, then you should be planning to upgrade or replace them. But, again, there’s no need to wait for Longhorn. Start working now on a plan to put Windows XP professional in place on your desktops with Windows Server 2003 replacing your NT 4 installations. Study and learn Active Directory, the biggest challenge you’ll face in upgrading. If it takes you 15 to 18 months to do this rollout, that’s not a problem. You’ll still be able to bring Longhorn into the lab and work with it for a year or so before moving it to the production environment.
So there’s your plan. No need to pay any attention to Longhorn, no need to get swept up in the hoopla, until the public beta is available. We’ll tell you about it here, then keep you informed of everything you’ll need to know about the new technology.
